Interagency Ecological Program: Phytoplankton monitoring in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta, collected by the Environmental Monitoring Program, 2008-2021

The State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) sets water quality objectives to protect beneficial uses of water in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Suisun Bay. These objectives are met by establishing standards mandated in water right permits issued to the Department of Water Resources and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation by the SWRCB. The standards include minimum Delta outflows, limits to Delta water export by the State Water Project (SWP) and the Central Valley Project (CVP), and maximum allowable salinity levels. In 1971, the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) established Water Right Decision 1379 (D-1379). This Decision contained new water quality requirements for the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary. D-1379 was also the first water right decision to provide terms and conditions for a comprehensive monitoring program to routinely determine water quality conditions and changes in environmental conditions within the estuary. The monitoring program described in D-1379 was developed by the Stanford Research Institute through a contract with the SWRCB. Implementation of the monitoring program began in 1972, as SWRCB, DWR, and USBR met to define their individual responsibilities for various elements of the monitoring program. In 1978, amendments to water quality standards were implemented and resulted in Water Right Decision 1485 (D-1485). More recently these standards were again amended under the 1995 Water Quality Control Plan and Water Right Decision 1641 (D-1641) established in 1999. The SWP and CVP are currently operated to comply with the monitoring and reporting requirements described in D-1641. D-1641 requires DWR and USBR to conduct a comprehensive environmental monitoring program to determine compliance with the water quality standards and also to submit an annual report to SWRCB discussing data collected. The phytoplankton monitoring program is one element of DWR’s and USBR’s Environmental Monitoring Program (EMP) conducted under the Interagency Ecological Program (IEP) umbrella. The EMP also includes monitoring of water quality, zooplankton, and benthic organisms. The overall objective of the phytoplankton monitoring program is to determine the impacts of water project operations on the estuary. These impacts are interpreted by changes in phytoplankton diversity, abundance, and distribution associated with physical and other biological factors in the estuary.

加利福尼亚州水资源控制委员会（State Water Resources Control Board，SWRCB）制定水质目标，以保护萨克拉门托-圣华金三角洲与苏森湾内水体的有益使用功能。该委员会通过制定标准实现上述目标，相关标准由SWRCB在向水资源部（Department of Water Resources，DWR）与美国垦务局（U.S. Bureau of Reclamation，USBR）核发的水权许可中强制规定。这些标准包括三角洲最低下泄流量、对州水利工程（State Water Project，SWP）与中央河谷工程（Central Valley Project，CVP）的三角洲引水限制，以及最大允许盐度值。
1971年，SWRCB出台了第1379号水权决议（Water Right Decision 1379，D-1379）。该决议针对旧金山湾-三角洲河口提出了全新的水质要求，同时也是首个为综合性监测计划设定条款与条件的水权决议——该计划用于常态化监测河口内的水质状况与环境变化。D-1379中提及的监测计划由斯坦福研究院通过与SWRCB签订合同开发完成。1972年，随着SWRCB、DWR与USBR共同明确各自在监测计划各模块中的职责，该监测计划正式启动实施。
1978年，水质标准修订方案正式落地，由此出台了第1485号水权决议（D-1485）。近年来，上述标准又先后通过1995年《水质控制计划》与1999年出台的第1641号水权决议（D-1641）完成修订。目前，SWP与CVP的运行需符合D-1641中规定的监测与报告要求。D-1641要求DWR与USBR开展综合性环境监测计划，以验证其是否符合水质标准，并向SWRCB提交年度报告，汇总所采集的监测数据。
浮游植物监测计划是DWR与USBR在跨机构生态计划（Interagency Ecological Program，IEP）框架下开展的环境监测计划（Environmental Monitoring Program，EMP）的组成部分之一。该环境监测计划还涵盖水质、浮游动物与底栖生物的监测工作。浮游植物监测计划的总体目标是评估水利工程运行对河口生态系统的影响，该影响通过分析河口内与物理因素及其他生物因素相关的浮游植物多样性、丰度与分布变化来判定。