joined the Interagency Program. Those agencies were the U.S. 
Geological Survey (USGS) and the State Water Resources Control 
Board (SWRCB). Today, a six agency program exists instead of a 
four agency program. 
The overall goal of the Delta Outflow/San Francisco Bay 
Study is to determine the relationship between freshwater 
outflows and fish and wildlife resources in the Bay, downstream 
of the Delta. In order to attain this goal, four general ob¬ 
jectives are being pursued. First of all, the study is deter¬ 
mining what elements of the Bay biota would be affected by signi¬ 
ficant changes of the inflow of freshwater from the Delta. 
Secondly, the project is determining how the flow reductions 
associated with the state and Federal project operations would 
change hydraulics and salinity gradients in the Bay. Thirdly, 
the effect of changes in hydraulics and salinity on the fish and 
wildlife resources in the Bay will be investigated. Finally, 
all this information will be used to develop flow and salinity 
standards (or other management strategies) if necessary to 
better protect fish and wildlife resources of the Bay. 
These objectives are being met through a twofold approach. 
First of all, fishery studies are being carried out in the Bay 
itself. By collecting monthly fishery samples at 3 5 locations 
in the Bay, the distributions and abundances of fish, shrimp, 
and crabs are being documented. This data will then be combined 
with output from the second aspect of the program -- the Hydro¬ 
dynamic/Physical/Chemical study. This recently expanded study 
element is evaluating changes in salinity and circulation 
patterns that are caused by outflow variation. These evalua¬ 
tions are being done using modeling work carried out by a 
five-member modeling team that is working under the technical 
supervision of Dr. Ralph Cheng, of the U.S. Geological Survey in 
Menlo Park, California. 
Parenthetically, the Interagency Program represents 
substantial funding commitments by the agencies involved. For 
example, the fiscal year 1985 budget for the Interagency Program 
is about $4,906,000. That money is allocated between five major 
programs including the San Francisco Bay/Delta Outflow Study. 
This study alone represents a budget of $1,655,000 for the 
coming year. 
Study Results 
To date, the fishery data collected in the outflow program 
have only been summarized for the first three years, but it is 
interesting because considerable variation in outflow has 
occurred during this year. The year 1981 was dry, while 1980 
and 1982 were wet years. Of the wet years, 1982 provided the 
highest amount of outflow to the bay. Additionally, the 
hydrographs for these years are characterized by pulse periods, 
when flows were considerably greater than other periods. These 
pulses are short-term high flows that move through the system, 
greatly altering physical conditions. 
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