Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Salt export from agricultural, wetland, and municipal dischargers to the San Joaquin River (SJR) is regulated as part of a comprehensive total maximum daily load (TMDL) for the San Joaquin River Basin (SJRB). The TMDL is intended to identify, quantify, and control sources of salt loading that affect attainment of salinity objectives and protect agricultural beneficial uses of water. Non-point sources of salinity are not amenable to the establishment of fixed monthly salt load allocations because of the diffuse nature of these loads making it difficult to monitor individual discharge points and assign responsibility. Real-time salinity management (RTSM) has been advocated as a novel means of improving compliance with SJR salinity objectives by enhancing the coordination of west-side agricultural and wetland salt loads with salt load assimilative capacity provided by reservoir releases along east-side tributaries to the SJR. RTSM is a concept that relies upon continuous access to real-time flow and electrical conductivity data from SJR Basin sensor networks and the development of a decision support system that extends watershed monitoring to allow salt load assimilative capacity forecasting in real-time. This paper describes some of the web-based information dissemination and data sharing innovations that have been tried and are under development in the implementation phase of the real-time salinity management program with an emphasis on experiences with stakeholder engagement and participation.