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Monitoring/ Assessment

Contra Costa Clean Water Program (CCCWP) monitors water quality because the Clean Water Act requires it. Through monthly deliberations of the CCCWP Monitoring Committee, we thoughtfully plan and execute our monitoring and assessment program to maximize the value added toward the goal of protecting water quality in streams of Contra Costa County and in San Francisco Bay.

Monitoring means the collection of physical, chemical, and biological) data, what you often think of as a person in a yellow vest collecting a sample to be analyzed by a person in a white coat.  

Assessment means integration of monitoring data with thresholds of effect, observations, correlations, patterns, trends, and other information and analyses to inform planning and regulatory decisions.

Our Program is about finding and addressing pollutants and impaired water quality related to urban runoff. On this page we tell you about how we look for pollutants, find out whether they cause effects of concern, and look for improvement after corrective measures. Below you will find links to our reports, organized by different broad interest areas:

  • Success stories that provide specific examples of how monitoring and assessment leads to solutions
  • Creek Status Monitoring and Assessment work to help stream stewards and regulatory agencies understand how human activities may impair creek health and improve it through restoration
  • Pollutants of Concern Monitoring for substances named by the State of California as impairing local waterbodies and subject to specific control measures (like mercury, PCBs, and new Contaminants of Emerging Concern)
  • A chronological linked list of Monitoring Reports produced by the program for easy reference access