California Water Quality Monitoring Efforts

Monitoring the Health of California's Waterways

California knows very little about the overall quality of its waters. California only reports on the health of 22% of its coastal shoreline, 34% of its lakes and reservoirs, and a mere 15% of its rivers and streams. Even less attention is given to the quality of the state’s groundwater basins.  There is no single place where the public can go to determine the health of their local waters, or even the overall health of California's waters.

Numerous federal, state and local water monitoring efforts currently occur with little coordination, severely reducing the utility of available data. Better information is needed to produce better decisionmaking, and to allow the public to make well-informed choices about using and managing its waters. Moreover, better monitoring is needed now to track water quality improvements from hundreds of new projects funded by millions in bond funds, which otherwise will essentially go unmeasured. CCKA’s interactive maps of the polluted waters of California represent just one of CCKA’s efforts to inform Californians about the water quality issues affecting their local waterways, and support sound policy decisions that protect the quality of California waters.  Learn how you can speak out for clean water.

CCKA Is Taking Action

CCKA drafted and sponsored legislation to address monitoring issues. SB 1070 (Kehoe), sponsored by CCKA and signed into law effective 2007, requires the state agencies who collect water quality data to coordinate their data collection and reporting activities and provide the public with online access to water-related information now held internally by those agencies. The bill also established a California Water Quality Monitoring Council to advise the state on how to develop coordinated water quality monitoring data collection and reporting systems.

As the Public Representative on the Water Quality Monitoring Council, CCKA emphasizes the need for the state to develop clear, usable products from which the public can benefit directly.  CCKA helped draft a Council report to the State Water Board on improved coordinated statewide water quality monitoring and reporting.  The final Council report included recommendations to develop impaired waters maps modeled closely on CCKA’s maps.  Publicly-accessible data products consistent with the Council’s report are regularly released by State Water Board staff now; they include information answering the questions:   “Is it safe to swim?,” “Is it safe to eat the fish?,” and "Are our wetlands healthy?"

CCKA also works to establish a sustainable source of long-term funding for water quality monitoring, particularly for beaches.  In September 2008, due to the budget crisis, Governor Schwarzenegger eliminated all state Department of Public Health funding for monitoring beach water quality during the summer and other dry weather months.  CCKA urged the State Water Board to step in and examine whether it could re-fund the program with bond funds.  In November 2008, CCKA testified at a hearing during which the State Water Board unanimously passed a resolution restoring this critical program using the bond money.  Efforts are ongoing to find a stable source of funding for this important effort.

CCKA will continue to work to ensure California’s agencies effectively implement coordinated water quality monitoring and provide the public with the information they need to hold their government accountable and be effective stewards of their local waters.