Charting the Course

BTS Explorers traveled from San Diego to Sacramento, Keswick, Davis, and along the existing Sacramento River monitoring stations and major outfall sources/pollution sites. Video and audio samples from each of the sites visited will be gathered in order to establish current visual conditions, and a live streaming video blog will be run through the existing Below the Surface blog to support the Charting the Course mission.

This preliminary trip will enable the gathering of photographic documentation of the following:

1) Existing major wastewater outfall pipes and random visual sampling of the effluent flow

2) Location of these wastewater outfall pipes relative to existing monitoring stations

3) Determine which chemicals in wastewater streams are being monitored by stations

This information will be edited and loaded into the Google Earth map of the Sacramento River on the Research Tools page of the Below the Surface website. By gathering this visual information, we’ll be able to compare the research our legal intern is currently compiling on the efficacy of current monitoring plans. From this, our team can better understand which chemicals need to be added to those monitored and reduced to clean up the Sacramento River and ultimately the San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay.