Slide 1 Mercury Control Program for the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta Estuary San Francisco Bay RMP Annual Meeting October 7, 2008 Michelle Wood

Slide 2 Outline Description of the Delta Mercury Impairment Overview of Proposed Delta Program Comparison to RMP Mercury Strategy’s High Priority Questions Questions & Discussion

Slide 3 The Delta >1100 mi waterways Drains ~1/3 of CA Region 5 Sacramento Tracy Stockton Antioch Brentwood Region 2 San Francisco Bay Hg Control Program: 110 Kg/year Reduce Central Valley Mercury Outflows by 110 Kg/year

Slide 4 Who eats Delta fish? Wildlife: Least tern, kingfisher, w estern grebes, bald eagle, osprey, & river otter

Slide 5 Who eats Delta fish? ~300,000 licensed sport & subsistence anglers per year Unknown # of unlicensed anglers Multiple ethnicities, communities, & income levels 5% of fish consumers in northern Delta: mercury intake rate 10x the safe dose

Slide 6 Goal of the Proposed Delta Mercury Program: Protect fish-eating wildlife & enable humans to safely consume more Delta fish.

Slide 7 Proposed Fish Tissue Hg Objective for Delta Fish 0.24 mg/kg mercury in large bass & catfish 1 meal (8 oz) per week

Slide 8 Average Hg Levels in Large Bass & Catfish (mg/kg) 0.26 na na 0.32 Proposed Objective: 0.24 mg/kg

Slide 9 Mercury Strategy for the Bay-Delta Ecosystem (CalFed, 2003): “The problem with mercury in the Delta’s aquatic ecosystems can be defined as biotic exposure to methylmercury.” MeHg = most toxic, bioavailable form of Hg >90% of Hg in fish = MeHg

Slide 10 Tributary MeHg Surface Sediments Pore Water Exchange & Diffusion bacterial methylation HgMeHg Open Channel Wetlands Urban & WWTPs Agricultural Lands / Delta Islands

Slide 11 How do we reduce fish MeHg levels? Local & nationwide studies: Most important, single factor in determining how much MeHg is in fish is water MeHg concentration Most direct way to reduce fish MeHg is to reduce the concentration of MeHg in water

Slide 12 MeHg Linkage: Largemouth Bass & Average Water MeHg R 2 = Water MeHg (ng/l) Bass Hg (mg/kg) y = x

Slide 13 MeHg Linkage: Largemouth Bass & Average Water MeHg R 2 = Water MeHg (ng/l) Bass Hg (mg/kg) 0.24 mg/kg ng/l y = x

Slide 14 Proposed MeHg Goal 0.06 ng/l in unfiltered ambient water, annual average Establishes the assimilative capacity Used to determine how much reduction from MeHg sources is needed to achieve fish tissue objective

Slide Average Annual Ambient MeHg Levels in Water (ng/l)

Slide 16 MeHg Source Reductions Needed to Achieve Proposed 0.06 ng/l goal 78% 0% 63% 45% 65% 73% 25% 0% 25% 78%

Slide 17 Proposed Control Strategy Reduce Hg in sediment (reduces MeHg produced by Delta wetlands & open-water areas) Control activities that enhance production of (and degrade) MeHg in wetlands & open-water areas Reduce MeHg discharges from external sources (e.g., WWTPs, urban runoff & irrigated agriculture)

Slide 18 Delta TMDL Adaptive Approach ~2009 Phase 1Phase 2  Studies  Implement Hg pollution prevention measures  Improve CC Settling Basin  Identify other high-priority legacy Hg projects  Develop upstream TMDLs  Conduct pilot offset projects Re-assess MeHg allocations & schedules.  Implement MeHg controls in the Delta & upstream watersheds  Continue to implement legacy Hg projects  Long-term offset projects ~2017 TMDL Review

Slide 19 Outline Description of the Delta Mercury Impairment Overview of the Proposed Delta Program Comparison to RMP Mercury Strategy’s High Priority Questions Comparison to RMP Mercury Strategy’s High Priority Questions Questions & Discussion

Slide 20 RMP Priority Questions 1.Where and when does mercury enter the food web?  We have a general idea of the “where” in the main channels

Slide 21 CalFed Mercury Program Fish Sampling Average Hg Concentrations in largemouth bass, 2000 (Davis et al., 2003) Inland silverside Hg & MeHg Concentrations, Fall 1999 (Slotton et al., 2002) Lower fish Hg in Central Delta during relatively low-flow years Lower fish Hg in Central Delta during relatively low-flow years Elevated fish Hg in Delta periphery

Slide 22 RMP Priority Questions 1.Where and when does mercury enter the food web?  We have a general idea of the “where” in the main channels  Does MeHg uptake into biota occur preferentially during some seasons? — Recent CalFed study results from Darrell Slotton and others indicate increases in biosentinel fish and water MeHg have been associated with floodplain inundation that occurred in different times of the year

Slide 23 RMP Priority Questions 2.Which processes, sources & pathways contribute disproportionately to food-web accumulation?  RMP isotopic composition study of mercury to determine which mercury inputs are contributing most to bioaccumulation — Useful for both Bay & Delta programs! — Compliments the proposed Delta program’s focus on identifying the MeHg sources to the Delta & the inorganic Hg sources that supply the MeHg sources

Slide 24 RMP Priority Questions 2.Which processes, sources, & pathways contribute disproportionately to food- web accumulation?  We have a general idea of which sources contribute MeHg & TotHg to the different areas of the Delta  Sources that cause the impairment in different Delta areas come from different places  We need seven different area-specific control strategies

Slide 25 Seven Control Programs in One… …because different areas of the Delta are dominated by different MeHg & TotHg sources Yolo Bypass Southern Delta

Slide 26 RMP Priority Questions 2.Which processes, sources, & pathways contribute disproportionately to food- web accumulation?  Need to refine load estimates for wetlands in the Delta & upstream watersheds

Slide 27 RMP Priority Questions 3.What are the best opportunities for management intervention for the most important pollutant sources, pathways & processes? 4.What are the effects of management actions? Proposed Delta TMDL implementation plan includes studies to address these questions. Yolo Bypass wetland management practice study is already underway

Slide 28 RMP Priority Questions Questions 3 & 4 Key observations for the Delta:  Tributary watersheds account for most of the MeHg inputs to the Delta  No one point or nonpoint source - individual or by category - in the Delta or its upstream watersheds causes the impairment

Slide 29 RMP Priority Questions Questions 3 & 4 Key observations for the Delta:  All wetlands are not alike: some act as big sources, some as small sources, and some as sinks  All WWTPs are not alike: some have low effluent MeHg, others high

Slide 30 RMP Priority Questions Questions 3 & 4 Key observations for the Delta:  Two recent studies support the hypothesis that MeHg in ambient water is a primary factor in determining how much MeHg is in fish

Slide 31 (1) Floodplain Inundation on the San Joaquin River: Before & After

Slide 32 RMP Priority Questions Questions 3 & 4 Key observations for the Delta:  Two recent studies support the hypothesis that MeHg in ambient water is a primary factor in determining how much MeHg is in fish 2)Local bioaccumulation study: WWTP effluent contributes about the same amount of mercury to Sacramento River bioaccumulation as expected from its effluent methylmercury loads

Slide 33 RMP Priority Questions Questions 3 & 4 Proposed Delta control program does not attempt to indicate which MeHg sources are more important because:  No one source type or individual source causes the impairment  We need additional characterization studies, especially for wetlands  We don’t know yet which inorganic Hg & MeHg sources will be the most feasible to reduce [in terms of efficacy, economics & environmental impacts associated with particular controls and management practices]

Slide 34 RMP Priority Questions 5.Will total mercury reductions result in reduced food web accumulation? Another good question! Further, if “yes”, can we reduce total Hg sources enough to accomplish desired fish MeHg reductions?

Slide 35 Questions & Comments Updates, reports & comments: water_issues/tmdl/central_valley_projects/delta_hg/

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