The Marine Pollution Studies Laboratory (MPSL) publishes research findings both in agency reports and peer reviewed journals. Most projects are grant-funded.  Major projects are listed below, along with links to the resulting publications.
 
 
Central Coast Watershed Projects
 
Watershed Reports and Publications
 
Coastal estuaries are among the most ecologically important and critically threatened habitats in California. Less than 20% of the State's coastal wetlands remain from the time of European settlement, and many of these face threats from water quality degradation.  Along California's Central Coast, rivers in the three largest watersheds (the Pajaro, Salinas, and Santa Maria) drain to coastal estuaries that provide essential habitat for early life stages of commercially and recreationally important marine fish species, threatened anadromous fish species, migratory birds, and other wildlife. 
 
Each of these watersheds contains year-round, intensively cultivated agricultural land that supports a $3.5 billion/year industry producing most of the nation's lettuce, artichokes, and crucifer crops.  Runoff from irrigated agriculture constitutes a significant portion of river flow during most of the year, and a number of studies have documented pesticide occurrence and biological impacts in these rivers and estuaries.
 
MPSL has conducted several studies in Central Coast watersheds.  These include watershed network surveys to identify the most contaminated tributaries, investigations of the impacts of agricultural drainages, in situ water and sediment exposures, surveys of sediment toxicity along extended river reaches, and integrated studies using ecological measures and toxicity identification evaluations to identify causes, sources, and ecological effects of non-point source pollution.
 
Current watershed projects include:
 
Monitoring Effectiveness of Vegetated Treatment Systems on Agricultural Lands
 
This monitoring project will help assess effectiveness of vegetated treatment systems in reducing the impact of agricultural runoff on receiving waters. The study will investigate the relationship between vegetation, flow, toxicity, pesticide concentrations, and a variety of other parameters in several vegetated treatment systems in Monterey County.
 
Baseline Ecotoxicology Assessment in Coastal Estuaries
 
The Pajaro, Salinas, and Santa Maria River estuaries will be monitored over two years to measure contaminant concentrations and effects in estuarine water, sediment, and biota. Contaminant profiles from the main rivers will be compared with those of adjacent tributaries.  Biological measurements at the molecular, organismal, and community levels will be measured synoptically to determine associations with contaminants.  Endocrine disruption will be measured in resident fish, toxicity will be measured in water and sediment, and estuarine benthic communities will be assessed. Chemical measurements of water, sediment and resident biota will include pyrethroid, organophosphate, and organochlorine pesticides, as well as PCBs, PAHs, and metals. 
 
Sediment Quality Objectives
 
The California Sediment Quality Objectives Database was produced as part of the State Water Resources Control Board's effort to develop sediment quality objectives (SQOs) for enclosed bays and estuaries. Data from various California habitats, including bays, estuaries, and offshore areas were compiled and integrated into a relational database to support SQO development and verification activities. The collected studies contain information on chemistry, toxicity, bioaccumulation, and benthic community condition, as well as associated metadata. The current role of MPSL in this project is to evaluate freshwater sediment toxicity in stations throughout the Sacramento/San Joaquin River Delta. 
 
Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program (SWAMP)
 
SWAMP Reports and Publications
 
The objectives of SWAMP are:
 
1. Create an ambient monitoring program that addresses all hydrologic units of the State using consistent and objective monitoring, sampling and analytical methods; consistent data quality assurance protocols; and centralized data management.
 
2. Document ambient water quality conditions in potentially clean and polluted areas, from the site-specific to statewide.
 
3. Identify specific water quality problems preventing the SWRCB, RWQCBs, and the public from realizing beneficial uses of water in targeted watersheds.
 
4. Provide the data to evaluate the overall effectiveness of water quality regulatory programs in protecting beneficial uses of waters of the State.
 
MPSL performs water and sediment toxicity testing for SWAMP, and participates in toxicity data management tasks.  The SWAMP toxicity data base grew out of the MPSL data management program.  MPSL scientists have participated in program planning committees, and have organized and facilitated external scientific review for the program.
 
 
Toxicity Identification Evaluations (TIE)
 
TIE Reports and Publications
 
Toxicity identification evaluations (TIEs) are assessment procedures that aid researchers in determining the cause of toxicity in water and sediment samples.  Their use figures prominently in the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) process because the TMDL must identify the cause of water body impairment, locate the sources of the causative pollutant, and allocate loadings of the pollutant among various sources.  TIEs are used in many projects at MPSL, but several projects have specifically evaluated or developed TIE methods. 
 
Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) - This project was designed to test the efficacy of known and emerging sediment TIE methods.  Solid-phase and interstitial water methods were evaluated using formulated sediment spiked with individual chemicals and mixtures of chemicals, as well as ambient samples.  Methods were also evaluated using two amphipod species: Eohaustorius estuarius (marine and estuarine) and Hyalella azteca (fresh water).
 
Pesticide Research and Investigation of Source and Mitigation (PRISM) - A component of one of our PRISM projects was to assist researchers from UC Davis and Aquascience in developing a TIE treatment specifically for pyrethroid pesticides.  The addition of porcine carboxylesterase enzyme to various aquatic and solid-phase exposures can reduced toxicity caused by pyrethroids.  Another component of this project was to investigate the efficacy of standard solid-phase extraction techniques for removing pyrethroids from water samples.
 
MPSL researchers participated in the development of the book "Toxicity Reduction and Toxicity Identification Evaluations for Effluents, Ambient Waters, and Other Aqueous Media".  This volume contains two chapters co-written by MPSL researchers and two MPSL TIE case studies.
 
 
Pesticide Research and Investigation of Source and Mitigation (PRISM)
 
PRISM Reports and Publications
 
PRISM projects investigate urban pesticide pollution, work related to the regulation of aquatic pesticide use and agricultural wastewater discharges, and other pesticide pollution projects related to water quality.
 
 
Oil Dispersant Toxicity Evaluation
 
Oil Despersant Reports and Publications
 
The decision-making process surrounding the use of oil dispersants is necessarily a cost-benefit analysis; both the acute toxicity and the efficacy of proposed dispersants must be assessed, and the consequences of both use and nonuse of dispersants must be weighed. When a significant amount of oil is spilled on water, the responders' task is to minimize damage to property and natural resources. Injury to mammalian and avian resources, although toxicologically complex, can be fairly easy to assess on the gross scale; oiled birds and mammals are relatively easy to find and count. However, the effects of oil and dispersants on subtidal and epipelagic organisms are more difficult to assess in the field. Therefore, even though they often represent less-than-ideal models of true environmental consequences, laboratory toxicity tests are used as a way of comparing the effects of different dispersants. By testing the different available agents using standardized models, it is possible to directly compare their relative effects.
 
 
Marine Bioassay Project
 
MBP Reports and Publications
 
The goal of the Marine Bioassay Project (MBP), authorized and funded by the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), was to protect California's ocean resources by determining the impacts of toxic waste discharges on marine waters.  The Project's primary objectives were:

1) to develop and validate critical life stage tests to measure effluent toxicity,
2) to provide technical support to the SWRCB, Regional Water Quality Control Boards, and laboratories that use the toxicity test methods listed in the California Ocean Plan, and
3) to gather additional scientific information necessary for continued revision and application of the Ocean Plan as a means to protect California's marine resources.
 
Four toxicity test protocols were developed using critical life stages of species indigenous to California's coastal waters.  These test methods were designed to estimate subtle long-term adverse effects of waste discharges that ultimately damage populations of important marine species.  The four toxicity protocols use an alga (giant kelp), a fish (topsmelt), and two invertebrates (red abalone and a Pacific mysid crustacean).  All of the MBP test methods are on the 1997 Ocean Plan approved list of critical life stage protocols for use in NPDES compliance monitoring.  The entire Ocean Plan list is published in the Procedures Manual for Conducting Toxicity Tests Developed by the Marine Bioassay Project (96-1WQ).
 
MPSL worked closely with the USEPA in adapting MBP protocols for inclusion into the USEPA West Coast Methods Manual (EPA/600/R-95/136).  This USEPA manual contains seven critical life stage protocols, including the four developed by the MBP.
 
 
Bay Protection and Toxic Cleanup Program (BPTCP)
 
BPTCP Reports and Publications
 
In 1989, the California State legislature established the Bay Protection and Toxic Cleanup Program (BPTCP).  The primary activities of the BPTCP were monitoring and assessment of sediments in California bays and estuaries.  The assessment strategy involved using sediment toxicity, chemistry, and ecology measures in weight-of-evidence approach to identify toxic hot spots.
 
The program was managed and funded through a cooperative agreement between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB).  The objectives of the study were to characterize the magnitude and spatial distribution of toxicant-associated bioeffects in California's bays and estuaries, determine relationships between biological effects and concentrations of sediment-associated contaminants, and to use a weight-of-evidence approach to rank and prioritize candidate hot spots for future assessment, cleanup, and remediation.
 
 
San Francisco Bay Regional Monitoring Program (SFBRMP)
 
SFBRMP Reports and Publications
 
The Regional Monitoring Program was created in 1993 by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board), and is funded by a consortium of area permitees and related entities. The RMP is an innovative collaboration managed by the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI), an independent non-profit scientific research organization.
 
The Regional Monitoring Program (RMP) provides water and sediment quality data to support management activities in the Estuary. It provides information on:

• The status and trends of estuary contamination;

• The sources, pathways, and relative importance of various contaminants; and

• The effects or potential effects that contamination is having on humans and other organisms that inhabit the Estuary.

 
MPSL conducts sediment toxicity testing for the program, and participates in program planning and review committees.  We have also conducted a number of special studies using TIEs to investigate the causes of sediment toxicity.
 
 
Additional Projects, Reports, and Publications