Monitoring and Protecting Water Quality in San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay is the largest estuary on the West Coast—providing rich biological diversity and a world-class ecosystem. Protecting the Bay’s water quality is critical to environmental stewardship and is the overarching goal of the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP). For more than 20 years, Integral Principal Bridgette DeShields has contributed to the RMP, serving as chair of the RMP technical review committee (TRC) since 2000.

On October 10, 2019, Ms. DeShields will present on the topic of industrial wastewater at the RMP annual meeting. During her talk, she will describe the refinery wastewater treatment process and the monitoring studies being conducted to track selenium, including monitoring of sturgeon—a species that is susceptible to bioaccumulation of pollutants such as selenium—as well as clams and water. The RMP is continuing to monitor selenium in these matrices, with the next round of sampling scheduled for later this fall. Ms. DeShields is a member of the selenium work group.

Along with coauthors, Ms. DeShields has contributed to an article on industrial wastewater featured in the biannual Pulse of the Bay, which will be issued at the same time as the conference. The Pulse describes the recent findings from the RMP.

Ms. DeShields is a specialist in regulatory strategy, site investigation, site remediation, sediment and water quality management, and environmental toxicology. She has served on the RMP as a representative for the Western States Petroleum Association and has held key roles in several work groups, in addition to her role as chair of the TRC.

For more information, contact Bridgette DeShields at bdeshields@integral-corp.com.