SAN JOAQUIN RIVER
Dissolved Oxygen
Total Maximum Daily Load
Stakeholder Process

San Joaquin River Dissolved Oxygen TMDL Technical Committee
Draft Meeting Notes - Draft 1 - October 4, 1999
By: Kevin Wolf, kjwolf@dcn.davis.ca.us

Attending: Doug Ball (USBR), Doug Brewer (JSA), Russ Brown (JSA), Carl Chen (Systech), Chris Foe (RWQCB), Jay Jahangiri (Port of Stockton), Brant Jorgenson (JSA), Tom King (RWQCB), G. Fred Lee, Peggy Lehman (CWR), Ronda Lucas (Farm Bureau), Frank Motzkus (Tracy), Bob Murdoch (Stockton), Casey Ralston (DWR), Kevin Wolf (facilitation and notes)
  1. CalFed Grant Issues
    1. Overview
      1. CalFed has given $860,000 in Category III funds to the Department of Water Resources through the USBR in response to a grant written under the direction of the Technical Committee by Peggy Lehman entitled "Determination of the Causes of Dissolved Oxygen Depletion in the San Joaquin River." Only Year 1 of the grant was funded.
      2. Year 1 tasks are defined as "…(July 99 to June 00) we will compile existing data and conduct a field surveys to fill in missing data gaps." These were detailed in the proposal as: (For the complete final proposal and spreadsheet, contact: Casey Ralston cralston@water.ca.gov )
        1. Task 1. Project Management
        2. Task 2. Data collection
          1. Subtask 1. Database development -
          2. Subtask 2. Surface water sources of oxygen demand.
            1. Item 1. Continuous monitoring
            2. Item 2. Discrete monitoring
          3. Subtask 3. Biomarker verification of sources
          4. Subtask 4. Sediment sources of oxygen demand
          5. Subtask 5. The Influence of tidal variability
      3. The Technical Committee has set the October 20 meeting to achieve a number of objectives regarding the CalFed grant. These objectives include:
        1. Review allocation of funds in the grant. Review the tasks, hypotheses, methodologies, and the budget line items. Is the money and effort in the right distribution? (Peggy will send the existing spreadsheet she has developed to the list.
        2. Determine how and when outside scientific review will occur. Who will be on the review team? Will the ag, urban and environmental community want to help choose who is the review team? What material will they be sent beforehand and who will develop and organize the background material for the review team?
        3. Determine who has the authority for making different decisions regarding budget, contractors, methodologies, priorities and more? What is determined by and what are the roles of the Steering Committee, Technical Committee, Principal Investigator, DWR and CalFed/USBR?
        4. Answer scheduling questions. When does the CalFed contract officially begin and thus end 12 months later? When must sub-contracts be signed? When does DWR have to submit general and detailed work plans to CalFed? (Note: DWR has already signed for the CalFed grant and would have lost it if it hadn't.)
        5. Determine how to allocate the $86,000 of the grant that can be spent and reimbursed when the contract officially begins. (This 10% can be spent immediately.)
        6. Review the role of the grant in the overall TMDL. (The grant cannot pay for the TMDL but the research and results of the grant can help advance the TMDL process.)
        7. Revisit the decision on how we allocated funds for data management and clarify if this covers NPDES discharge data collection for one or all three years?
        8. Document our changes and decisions and send to CalFed
      4. Peggy will provide a more detailed timeline for the CalFed grant by this meeting along with the current budget. She will relay on the Technical Committee's encouragement for the Department to send a DWR legal team representative to attend the October 20 meeting. (We could schedule a specific time for this discussion to save this person time.)
  2. Rough Cut Load Allocation Assignments
    1. Objective: Develop load estimates for Year 1999 with priority being for August and September
    2. Factors and Responsible Individual (Note: The raw notes from the printout were somewhat cryptic. If you do not know exactly what your assignment is, post to the list or ask Russ Brown directly. Kevin)
      1. Mossdale x River Flow at Stockton x Factor - Tom King
      2. Local Drainage (e.g. French Camp Slough) - Tom King, Brant Jorgenson
      3. Daily Conversion and RWCF - Carl Chen
      4. Change in BOD and Tidal Exchange - Carl Chen
      5. Run model for August - September 1999 - Carl Chen
      6. Ship effects - Jay Jahgagiri
      7. PP Sloughs - Peggy Lehman
      8. Mass balance of algae and BOD in - Peggy Lehman
        1. Turning Basin
        2. Channel Point
        3. Mainstem Smith Canal
      9. Sediment Oxygen Demand - Gary Litton
      10. Ammonia - Carl Chen
      11. Area x Reaeration rates - Carl Chen
      12. D.O. Concentration over Depth - Russ Brown
      13. Load Integration - Fred Lee
    3. Goals and objectives for the Rough Cut Load Allocation
      1. Quantify relative load estimates upstream and downstream of Mossdale and for as many other sites as is possible within the data, resources and time available.
      2. Develop and error term for the estimates
      3. Identify data gaps and define/focus future studies and monitoring. (How important is completing the literature and data review to rough-cut?)
      4. Validate Carl Chen's/City of Stockton's computer model and the present data. If the numbers from this independent rough cut load allocation are similar to what the model predicted, it will help validate the model.
      5. Define boundaries of load analysis, both in terms of geography and constituents to be considered. The rough cut will estimate the load allocation of different constituents upstream and downstream of Vernalis. The results could direct more study upstream, downstream or both.
      6. If data is available, soon after the rough cut is finished, estimate the following in order to help focus research in both the problem and solution areas:
        1. Contribution of major and then minor tributaries and sloughs
        2. Contribution of ag drains into mainstem San Joaquin
        3. Contribution to load from urban runoff (data probably not available)
      7. Define the time period of interest. Do loads entering the watershed in winter and spring affect the lower river in summer and fall? How does the time of year in which different loads enter the watershed affect dissolved oxygen levels or the BOD accumulation that is triggered in the lower river?
      8. Estimate the amount of the load that goes into different BOD sinks (e.g. irrigation diversions, algal growth, sediment).
      9. Determine the benefits of reaeration, both wind and mechanical. Use an exchange co-efficient of .05 for a channel 7 meters deep. (In the channel reaeration is estimated to be 1 mg of oxygen per liter.)
    4. Load Allocation Methodology, presented by Russ Brown, russb@jsanet.com
      (For more details and a more complete summary of the issues and calculations, see Russ' paper "Methodology for "Rough Cut" TMDL for Dissolved Oxygen in the San Joaquin River" September 29, 1999.) Below are additional issues that were raised either during the presentation or by participants:
      1. The Balance Sheet for the Load Allocation will include the following:
        1. River (Upper and Lower)
        2. Local Drainage
        3. The Regional Wastewater Control Facility
        4. Tidal Exchange
        5. Evaporation
        6. Groundwater (not an important factor as water moves away from the river.)
      2. What is the historical impact of load settling as sediment and now expressing itself in O2 demand? (Chemical component.) Tracer and chemical dating studies could help.
      3. How long does it take SOD to decay and no longer demand 02? Gary Litton is studying decay rates on SOD. Determine what percent of SOD is double counted.
      4. How is settling of algae affected in different geographic areas?
        1. Algae settles more at the upstream end of the channel than at the lower end.
        2. Transit time across the 10,000 acre foot basin is ten days when the flow is 500 cfs.
        3. Algae in embayments swim and thus are not as susceptible to decay.
        4. How is this included in the allocation?
      5. Each molecule of ammonia in the water removes five molecules of O2. (What is the chemical reaction?)
      6. The rough cut load allocation should help determine if French Camp Slough and the Calaveras River need to be sampled. (Is French Camp a good example of other dairy discharge areas?)
      7. How much load from the Turning Basin is entering the channel downstream? Issues include:
        1. Residence time for water in the channel?
        2. Stratification between light and dark (four foot depth and about 1.5 feet of light)
        3. The effect of dredging upon the load
        4. The Army Corps dredges on an as needed basis (every 4 years or so).
      8. How much BOD is decaying in the water and how much is settling to sediment? Tracers could be used to determine how much of the sediment is fresh and how much is old.
      9. Carl Chen can determine the coefficient of exchange in tidal flow into the target water body including salt lost to flow.
      10. Determine how much water in the deep water channel comes from Sacramento versus the SJR.
        1. The ratio of Chloride (or Sodium) over Electro-conductivity could help determine this. The ratio could be compared to Carl's analysis. If needed, we could do a controlled sample (especiation?) to determine mineral quality.
        2. Find characteristic ratio from three sources (SJR, Sacramento, and RWCF) and use tracer studies to determine their signature Chloride (CL) or Sodium (Na) to electroconductiveity (Ec ratio). Statistical analysis could be used to determine the degree of confidence we would have with this ratio.
        3. If characteristic ratios can be confirmed and calculated, we can determine if there are flow reversals in the deep water channel.

      Back to Main page
      Website designed by Kevin Wolf and Associates
      Webmaster: Sybil Harlow