The City of Palo Alto, in collaboration with the San Francisquito Watershed Council, has created this website to facilitate the collection and dissemination of local creek data and information. Employees and volunteers for the City of Palo Alto, Stanford University, and the San Francisquito Watershed Council collect a variety of creek data. Some of the data is collected to monitor water quality in the creeks, while some of the data is used to learn more about the creeks. This site includes three different types of data, these are examples of each data type:

The first data source is the Long-Term Monitoring and Assessment Plan (LTMAP) for the San Francisquito Creek Watershed. Pollutants and water quality parameters monitored at the LTMAP stations include metals, pesticides, nitrogen species, suspended solids, and dissolved oxygen. Stations collecting data for the LTMAP are represented by a red dot, and are labeled with black writing, as shown above. Please visit the LTMAP key summary page for summary graphs of this data. For a comprehensive report, download a .pdf report of the stations at Piers lane on San Francisquito Creek and Los Trancos Creek from water year 2002 or 2003.

The second data source is the City of Palo Alto data collection points. Both volunteers and city employees collect water quality data using a multi-probe system that measures conductivity, pH, temperature, and dissolved oxygen. To view data tables and graphs of this data, click on the stations labeled on the maps with a green triangle.

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer for the City of Palo Alto, please e-mail cleanbay@cityofpaloalto.org

The third data source is the San Francisquito Watershed Council "reaches." Community volunteers collect this data. Each volunteer selects a segment of stream, and walks along this reach regularly to observe physical, chemical, biological, and social influences. To view where these reaches are located, move your mouse over the dark blue reach symbol (shown above). In the future you may be able to click the reaches to view streamkeeper observations. Reach names are coded using two letters, followed by a number; e.g., SF1 (for San Francisquito Creek Reach #1) or AR1 (for Arastradero Creek Reach #1). For more information about the Streamkeeper program click here. If you would like to become a volunteer for the San Francisquito Watershed Council, please contact Sapna Singh at (650) 961-1035 ext. 310.