The council participates in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary's Citizen's Monitoring Network. We have 5 test sites along Garrapata and Joshua Creek. One is located at the bridge at the end of Garrapatos Road, tow are on Joshua Creek at the Garrapata Trout Farm, another is just above the confluence of Joshua and Garrapata Creek and one is on lower Garrapata Creek about a quarter of a mile from the ocean.
A landowner in our watershed has provided a site for a 15 month sampling
project by the CCAMP 
program; in addition to the
basic water quality testing (see next paragraph) they also do nutrients and coliform. On
27 March 2002 the CCAMP crew came down and did a rapid bio-assessment which collects
invertebrates that live in the creek. This tells us how much food is available and is
another indicator of water quality. We will not get the results back on this study for
quite a while but will post it when it is available.
We test for pH, Temperature, Dissolved Oxygen, conductivity (amount of heavy metals) and transparency (cloudiness) using calibrated equipment on loan from the Citizen Monitoring Program. The numbers show how well the creek serves as habitat of the steelhead but also gives us a general idea of water quality for drinking water. We have done a detailed chemical test in late summer 2000 and saw nothing particularly hazardous.
What we are seeing is that Joshua Creek is consistently more cloudy than Garrapata Creek. Other important indicators such as dissolved oxygen and conductivity are in line with other sites.
| Date | Station | pH | Temperature(C/F) | Conductivity(µS) | transparency(cm) | Dissolved Oxygen(ppm) | Comments |
| 16 Nov 2000 | GCWC1 | 7.5 | 10.2 C | 330 | 76.4 | 11.2 | air temp 12.6 C |
| 5 Jan 2001 | GCWC1 | 7.5 | 9.3 C | 440 | 106 | 11.8 | clear,low flow,air temp 11.7 |
| 5 Jan 2001 | GCWC2 | 7.5 | 8.3 C | 310 | >117.5 | 12.0 | see above |
| 8 Jan 2001 | GCWC1 | 7.5 | 10.6 C | 330 | <4 | 11.3 | 1.05 " rain last night, creek choc. brown color |
| 8 Jan 2001 | GCWC2 | 7.5 | 10.2 C | 260 | 7 | 10.7 | 1.05" rain, darker brown color |
| 8 Jan 2001 | GCWC3 | 7.5 | 9.4 C | 190 | 29 | 11.4 | same day, 4 hours later, darker brown |
| 5 March 2001 | GCWC1 | 7.0 | 10.7 C | 180 | 9 | 11.3 | OVC, 1.6" rain in last day |
| 5 March 2001 | GCWC2 | 7.0 | 10.3 C | 150 | 23 | 11.2 | " |
| 5 March 2001 | GCWC3 | 7.0 | 11.0 C | 150 | 18 | 10.6 | " |
| 6 April 2001 | GCWC1 | >117.5 cm | before rain started | ||||
| 7 April 2001 | GCWC1 | <4 cm | after 0.9" rain overnight | ||||
| 18 April 2001 | GCWC1 | 7.5 | 11.2 C | ---- | 105 | 10.6 | partly cloudy |
| 18 April2001 | GCWC2 | 7.0 | 11.4 C | ---- | >117.5cm | 10.4 | much clearer than GCWC1 |
| 19 April 2001 | GCWC1 | 39 cm | rain last night 0.3" | ||||
| 19 April 2001 | GCWC2 | >117.5 cm | much clearer than 117.5 cm | ||||
| 19 April 2001 | GCWC3 | >117.5 cm | slightly clearer than 117.5 cm | ||||
| 21 April 2001 | GCWC3 | 7.0 | 9.0 C | 180 | 29 cm | 11.5 | Snapshot day |
| 26 June 2001 | GCWC1 | 7.5 | 13.5 C | --- | >117.7 cm | 11.0 | slightly milky look |
| 26 June 2001 | GCWC2 | 7.5 | 13.5 C | --- | >117.5 cm | 10.9 | cond. meter broken |
| 26 June 2001 | GCWC3 | 7.0 | 13.1 C | --- | >117.5 cm | 11.0 | |
| 26 June 2001 | GCWC4 | 7.0 | 14.5 C | --- | >117.5 cm | 10.0 | late afternoon |
| 15 August 2001 | GCWC1 | 7.5 | 14.1 C | 440 | > 117.5 cm | 10.2 | |
| 15 August 2001 | GCWC2 | 7.0 | 14.4 C | 340 | >117.5 cm | 10.0 | |
| 15 August 2001 | GCWC3 | 7.0 | 14.3 C | 370 | >117.5 cm | 10.0 | |
| 29 Oct 2001 | GCWC5 | 8.0 | 55.8 F | 510 | >117.5 cm | 10.0 | new test set |
| 28 Nov 2001 | GCWC1 | 8.0 | 50.0 F | 450 | >117.5 cm | 10.8 | water slight smoky look |
| 28 Nov 2001 | GCWC2 | 7.5 | 48.6 F | 320 | >117.5 cm | 11.2 | water very clear |
| 26 Jan 2002 | GCWC1 | 7.5 | 47.5 F | 390 | 92 cm | 11.0 | slight milky look |
| 26 Jan 2002 | GCWC2 | 7.5 | 45.0 F | 270 | >117.5 cm | 11.8 | "Gin clear" |
| 25 March 2002 | GCWC5 | 37 cm | |||||
| 27 March 2002 | GCWC1 | 7.5 | 50.5 F | 300 | 49 cm | 10.9 | hazy |
| 27 March 2002 | GCWC2 | 7.5 | 50.5 F | 220 | > 117.5 cm | 11.4 | slightly cloudy |
Key:
GCWC1 - Lower Joshua Creek at the Garrapata Trout Farm
GCWC2 - Garrapata Creek just above confluence with Joshua Creek
GCWC3 - Lower Garrapata Creek about .25 miles from ocean
GCWC4 - Garrapata Creek at Garrapatos Road bridge
GCWC5 - House on Joshua Creek
OVC - Overcast
Transparency meter can only measure up to 117.5 cm. Council bought own testing gear; temps. in F after October 2001.
Click here to see the
CCAMP data that was collected on our creek.
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This page was last updated on April 23, 2007