The State Water Resource Control Board's (SWRCB) Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program
(SWAMP) has just issued its official procedures for collecting bioassessment samples and associated
physical habitat data. Assessments of the ecological condition of perennial streams rely on indicators
such as biotic assemblages (for example, fish, benthic macroinvertebrates, periphyton) and the
physical attributes of the stream channel and surrounding riparian area. The biotic assemblage and
physical habitat parameters can reveal whether a stream is healthy or degraded.

The new guidance document has two complementary procedures for sampling benthic macroinvertebrate
assemblages and a suite of procedures for measuring physical habitat and chemical conditions associated
with these samples. Collectively, these new procedures are designed to produce repeatable quantitative
measures of a steam's physical/habitat condition and benthic invertebrate assemblages.

The Bioassessment Protocols can be found on the SWRCB's SWAMP Web site at:
http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/swamp/reports.html .

More information on the SWAMP program can be found on our website at:
http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/swamp/index.html .


Mary Tappel
Environmental Scientist
mtappel@waterboards.ca.gov
(916) 341-5491
Fax: (916) 341 5550