Caltrans Storm Water Quality Monitoring Program - San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Bioretention Pilot Project

Client: California Department of Transportation (Caltrans)

Prime Contractor: MACTEC

Location: Oakland, California

Period of Performance: December 2008 - Present

Project Description: In 2002, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board (SFBRWQCB) issued a set of WDRs to address post-construction storm water runoff impacts associated with the proposed San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge East Span Seismic Safety Project (East Span Project). Caltrans's Storm Water Management Plan (SWMP) was submitted to fulfill the requirements of the WDR adopted by the SFBRWQCB for the East Span Project.

To address the provisions of the SWMP, ADH has supported Caltrans, as a subcontractor on this five year study by providing programmatic and technical support to Caltrans District 4 decision makers to ensure successful implementation of the pilot project. ADH played a critical role, in consultation with Caltrans managers, to develop solutions to site-specific monitoring, sampling, and analyses challenges that were endemic to this study. ADH successfully installed and operated over a dozen automated monitoring and sampling stations necessary to test the effectiveness of six bioretention basins to attenuate influent storm water of a wide variety of physical, chemical and biological pollutants.

ADH Responsibilities:

• Install, maintain and operate remote storm water monitoring stations
• Remote data communication and instrument control
• Sample collection
• Tidal monitoring
• Fish monitoring in storm drain system
• Operation and troubleshooting of storm water lift stations
• Coordination with Caltrans managers & maintenance staff
• Database management and data analysis
• Prepare post-storm technical memoranda elements
• Prepare annual monitoring report elements
• Editorial review of memoranda and reports