Data for monitoring trace metal and benthic community near the Palo Alto Regional Water Quality Control Plant in South San Francisco Bay, California (ver. 3.0, July 2025)

Trace-metal concentrations in sediment and in the clam Limecola petalum (World Register of Marine Species, 2020; formerly reported as Macoma balthica and M. petalum), clam reproductive activity, and benthic macroinvertebrate community structure were investigated in a mudflat located 1 kilometer south of the discharge of the Palo Alto Regional Water Quality Control Plant (PARWQCP) in south San Francisco Bay, California. This report includes data collected by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) starting in January 2019. These data append to long-term datasets extending back to 1974. This dataset supports the City of Palo Alto’s Near-Field Receiving-Water Monitoring Program, initiated in 1994. This data release is presented as two datasets each on its own child page. The first child page contains clam tissue metals data, sediment metals data, percentage fine sediment, total organic carbon, and the salinity of the overlying water. The second child page contains clam reproduction and benthic community data. Please read the metadata file corresponding to each dataset for complete details.

First posted - June 29, 2021
Revised - November 17, 2022
Revised - July 11, 2025