K aren Worcester Staff Environmental Scientist with thanks to M. Thomas, D. Paradies, L. Harlan, and P. Meertens California Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board Healthy Watersheds: Tracking and Implementing Long-term Goals for Watershed Protection 2 The Central Coast Regional Water Board manages waters draining to approximately one- third of the California coastline! What are we doing to protect the quality of the water entering our coastal environment? 3 Our Vision Healthy Functioning Watersheds Healthy Aquatic Habitat Proper Land Management Clean Groundwater 1: Create Vision 2. Align Org 3. Implement 4 Healthy Watersheds Goal 1: By % of aquatic habitat is healthy, and the remaining 20% exhibits positive trends in key parameters Goal 2: By % of lands within any watershed will be managed to maintain proper watershed functions, and the remaining 20% will exhibit positive trends in key watershed parameters Goal 3: By % of groundwater will be clean, and the remaining 20% will exhibit positive trends in key parameters VisionGoalsMeasure 5 Goal 1: Aquatic Habitat Riparian and In-stream Habitat Physical index Chemical index Biological index Healthy Watersheds 6 Goal 2: Land Use Healthy Watersheds Urban Percentage of new projects using LID design standards Percentage of impervious surface in a watershed Buffer zones for aquatic habitat Agriculture Percentage of land with adequate BMPs Toxicity of runoff Buffer zones for aquatic habitat 7 Healthy Watersheds Goal 3: Groundwater Nitrates Salts Cleanup Case Closures New Cases 8 Biological measures Chemical measures Physical measures Health Index Defining Healthy 9 Combining multiple metrics into a single score expressing biological health Toxicity Bioassessment Biostimulation Pathogen Indicators Riparian Health Biological Health 10 Biostimulatory risk Bioassessment Toxicity Pathogens Riparian characteristics Biological index Nutrient concentrations Oxygen Saturation (departure from median) pH (departure from median) Algae (% cover) Water Column Chlorophyll a Percentile ranking is used to combine data of different types 11 Limekiln Creek (Rank = 0.0) Franklin Creek (Rank = 85.3) 12 (shown as quartiles) Biostimulatory Risk Scores 13 Different scales of data Sites Reaches Watershed New USGS data tools will help us attach sites to reaches to watersheds 14 New USGS NHD+ solves lots of problems! NHD+ CalWater 2.2 Connect rivers to sheds Models flow and precipitation 15 Reach-Scaled Data Riparian buffer zones 16 Reach-Scaled Data Land uses within riparian buffer zones 17 Reach-scaled data Delineating Riparian Corridors 18 Watershed-Scaled Data National Land Cover Database 19 Watershed-Scaled Data Impervious Surfaces NLCD 20 Tools we have for tracking goals, using agricultural data as an example 21 Monitoring Implementation of Management Practices Education Central Coast Conditional Waiver for Irrigated Agriculture 22 Agricultural Areas (and monitoring sites) 23 Mean Nitrate levels in groundwater wells 24 Number of New Management Practices Planned in Next 3 Years 1 25 practices 25 Planning to use Nutrient Budget to determine application rates 26 DPR Database Chlorpyrifos applications and Toxicity 27 Chlorpyrifos applications by Cropping Operation 28 29 30 Tier 1 and 2 filers and potential nonfilers 31 How we will move forward Align our organizational activities with our goals Fund several specific tasks related to data processing Track additional practices Especially urban storm water Gather and digest monitoring and assessment information Complete our underlying information management system 32 Protecting Coastal Waters: An example of an enforcement action that has benefited our new Channel Islands Marine Protected Area Protecting Coastal Waters: An example of an enforcement action that has benefited our new Channel Islands Marine Protected Area 33 34 35