we celebrate january 1 as “new year’s day,” but ….docVIP

The Goleta Slough Watershed A review of data collected from October 2005 through September 2006 by the Channelkeeper Goleta Stream-Team Al Leydecker Introduction The streams that drain the Goleta watershed transport pollutants such as bacteria and excess nutrients down to the slough and ocean and the purpose of the Channelkeeper Stream-Team program is to provide comprehensive monitoring of this ecologically important catchment. The Goleta Stream-team began in the summer of 2002 as a partnership program of Santa Barbara Channelkeeper and the Isla Vista Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. The program has three goals: (1) establish baseline information of stream conditions in the watershed; (2) establish a trained volunteer monitoring base; and (3) locate previously unidentified point-sources of pollution. Stream-Team conducts monthly on-site testing at designated locations on streams tributary to the Goleta Slough and in the slough itself. Near the beginning of each month, teams of volunteers measure physical and chemical parameters using portable, hand-held instruments. Data collected includes on-site measurements of dissolved oxygen, turbidity, conductivity, pH, temperature and flow. Water samples, collected at each site, are processed in Channelkeepers laboratory for three Public Health bacterial indicators with approved standard methodology (Colilert-18 and Enterolert-24, manufactured by Idexx Laboratories; US-EPA, 2003). Additional samples are analyzed for nutrients through the cooperation of the Santa Barbara Channel – Long Term Ecological Research Project (SBC-LTER) at the University of California, Santa Barbara; the parameters measured are: ammonium, nitrite plus nitrate, orthophosphate, total dissolved nitrogen and total dissolved phosphorus. Characteristics such as vegetation and observed aquatic life are recorded. Occasionally, tests for other ions and contaminants are done. As part of every sampling event, instruments and meters are checked and