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SWAMP adopts five‑year plan to prioritize filling bioaccumulation data gaps, to begin with lakes in 2025–26
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Summary
SWAMP staff reported management decisions to focus the next five years on filling identified data gaps (with an equity lens), prioritize lakes monitoring in 2025–26, and use a tiered funding approach and annual feedback schedule to add sites or analytes as budgets permit.
SWAMP staff reported that management has adopted a five‑year monitoring strategy that prioritizes filling identified data and information gaps statewide rather than continuing the program’s statistically driven trend panels as the primary activity.
Anna, who led the long‑term priorities process, told the Safety Work Group the plan is the product of presentations and written feedback from the nine regional water boards, the Division of Water Quality, OEHHA, Biomonitoring California and five California Native American governments. She said the intent is to produce a long‑term framework while retaining an annual feedback process so partners can request additions or changes each year.
The plan uses funding tiers so monitoring can scale to available resources. ‘‘We want a plan that will help us say, okay — our budget's around here so we can make these decisions,’’ Anna said, adding that project ideas such as data‑visualization tools and pilot projects will be included in the plan so partners can quickly deploy them when funding arises. Jay, who outlined report and contract timelines, said lakes monitoring will be central for 2025–26, with statewide river monitoring planned for 2027 and coast work in 2028.
SWAMP will rely on partner requests to target mercury analyses and other costly analytes. Anna said mercury sampling will be concentrated where regions, OEHHA or tribal partners identify a clear need, and that PFAS monitoring statewide is unaffordable, so the program will prioritize a PFAS archive effort and site selection near likely PFAS sources.
Calendar and process details: SWAMP plans to publish a draft monitoring plan in July and open a call for monitoring requests; submissions will be due September 1. The monitoring season is expected to run March–November the following year. Anna and Jay urged regional boards and other partners to discuss potential cost‑sharing and contracting approaches so contributions can be coordinated in time for sampling and analysis.
Next steps: SWAMP staff will share an updated timeline and a July draft of both the annual monitoring plan and the longer five‑year plan for review and comment. Partners were asked to prepare requests by September 1 and to use an upcoming feedback form and the test dashboard for data review and planning.
