A primary focus of the Regional San science team is working in partnership with other agencies and organizations to study the importance of a wide range of stressors on the Delta ecosystem (and on the Delta’s beneficial uses) so that the best possible science can be brought to bear on critical policy and management issues in the Delta and watershed.

Potential stressors include hydrologic modification, fish entrainment, invasive species, predation, contaminants, habitat loss or alteration, climate change, and our treatment plant’s discharge.

Recent Efforts

Our science section has recently supported four large-scale scientific studies on the Sacramento River conducted by the USGS, university researchers, and our own staff. Our aim is to better understand the role of Sacramento Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant (SRWTP) discharge in the Sacramento River and the Bay-Delta ecosystem, with an emphasis on phytoplankton growth, abundance, and species presence in association with nutrients and other environmental factors.

Results suggest that (1) a factor other than the presence of wastewater is leading to the decline in phytoplankton biomass along the river near SRWTP, (2) high stress and low production of phytoplankton in Suisun Bay is related to some factor(s) other than ammonia, and (3) non-native clams are widely present in the Sacramento River between Sacramento and Isleton, potentially reducing phytoplankton abundance.