Meeting Notes
Smelt Scoping Team
Meeting #1
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
The Nature Conservancy
555 Capitol Mall, Suite 1290
Sacramento, California 95814
2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Attendees
Scoping Team Members: Shawn Acuña (MWD), Steve Culberson (USFWS and Co-Chair), Val Connor (SFCWA),
Chad Dibble (DFW), Scott Hamilton (Coalition for Sustainable Delta and Co-Chair), Rainer Hoenicke (DSP),
Anke Mueller-Solger (IEP) by telephone, Matt Nobriga (USFWS), Ted Sommer (DWR), Erwin Van
Nieuwenhuyse (USBR), Leo Winternitz (GEI)
Other Participants: Paul Brown (CAMT Facilitator), Bruce DiGennaro (Facilitator), Pat Colston (DFW), Dave
Van Rijn (USBR)
Agreements
No.
Agreement
1-1
The Smelt Scoping Team will host a standing meeting the first and third Tuesday of each month
from 2-4pm.
1-2
The meeting on 4/1 will focus on the workplan and identifying investigators
1-3
The meeting on 4/15 will focus on Fall Outflow workplan item #1 (potential survey data bias) and
will include presentations by Emilio Laca, Dave Fullerton, and Matt Nobriga. The meeting will start
at 1pm to provide more time.
1-4
The issue of potential survey data bias is something we should consider as an overly on all
workplan items. Potential data limitations depend on the question(s) being asked and will vary
from workplan item to workplan item. It’s important to identify and acknowledge data limitations
before engaging investigations. This could be part of the scope of work for each investigation (i.e.
ask the experts to address such issues as part of their work).
Version
0.1
Date
3/31/14
Author
Bruce DiGennaro,
Shawn Acuna
Change Description
First draft for review.
-1-
Action Items
No.
Action Item
Due
Responsible
Status
1-1
All members should review the
workplan and identify potential
investigators for discussion at the 4/1
meeting.
4/1/14
All
On-going.
1-2
All members should identify
potentially relevant data sets for each
investigation and potential limitations.
4/1/14
All
On-going.
1-3
Shawn will coordinate with Dave
Fullerton on his presentation.
4/15/14
Shawn Acuna
On-going.
Agenda Topics and Discussion Notes
Item
1.
Topic
Team Membership
Purpose
Introductions. Review of team
roster (see attached).
Presenters
Bruce DiGennaro
Highlights


Welcomed Scoping Team Members and invited attendees to introduce themselves.
The following clarifications and adjustments were made to the team roster, as approved by CAMT
at its earlier meeting: Shawn Acuña replaced Dave Fullerton; Sue Fry designated Erwin Van
Nieuwenhuyse for USBR; Leo Winternitz is looking for an NGO representative to serve on the team;
Anke Mueller-Solger will be leaving June 16. See attached updated team roster.
Steve Culberson strongly suggested that only Scoping Team members attend future meetings.

Item
2.
Topic
Team Responsibilities
Purpose
Review guidelines and function
of the group.
Presenters
Bruce DiGennaro
Discussion Highlights




Reviewed Draft CAMT Scoping Team Responsibilities and Procedural Guidelines.
The Scoping Team will:
o Review Workplan questions,
o Identify experts as potential investigators,
o Refine the questions and hypothesis (with experts as appropriate),
o Prepare short 2-page study guidelines for investigators, and
o Ask for detailed proposals from investigators.
The team will provide advice on the approach but will be allowing the investigators to make
suggestions based on their expertise and experience.
Reviewed role of the Delta Science Program (DSP) who will assist with identification of experts.
Version
0.1
Date
3/31/14
Author
Bruce DiGennaro,
Shawn Acuna
Change Description
First draft for review.
-2-
Item
3.
Topic
CAMT Workplan
Purpose
Review Workplan priorities
Presenters
Bruce DiGennaro
Discussion Highlights





Priority CAMT Workplan topics include Delta Outflow and OMR.
There are 5 High Priority topics on Outflow and 3 High Priority Topics on OMR.
There are 3 secondary topics for Outflow and 5 secondary for OMR.
The group agreed that the priority topics would be addressed first.
The first item discussed was Priority Topic 1 for Outflow. It concerns the criticism of existing Survey
Data and how it is used for analyses.
Several people expressed concern that it will be difficult to move forward unless potential bias is
addressed and all those concerned came to a consensus on how it should be handled.

Item
4.
Topic
Potential Sample Bias
Purpose
Discuss Workplan item 3-1.1
regarding sample bias.
Presenters
Scott Hamilton, Matt
Nobriga
Discussion Highlights










Issues regarding potential sampling bias depend on the question(s) being asked and how the data
will be used.
The issue of potential sampling bias relates to all the Workplan items and should be an element of
each investigation.
All parties need to understand inherent data limitations and be comfortable with those limitations
prior to engaging specific investigations (for example, what risks are we willing to accept with
disaggregation?).
The Scoping Team should discuss and provide information on the limitations of each survey data set
to Investigators. The Team should also ask the investigators to address potential sampling bias
issues as part of their work.
The Scoping Team should assess the usefulness of a given data set for a given question(s) (i.e. ask
what data set would be useful/appropriate for given questions, and what are the limitations?).
Before initiating investigations, the Scoping Team should discuss if potential biases are sufficiently
large enough to preclude conclusions regarding certain questions. The Team should also ask if
“corrections” can be made without drastically affecting the level of certainty.
We already know that existing data sets have limits for assessing distribution and abundance due to
fixed station approach.
Future products should include explicit discussion of the data sets used and their limitations for the
given application, and associated level of certainty in the findings.
All parties should be prepared to bring their concerns about the survey data and any specifics biases
to the table.
Presentations by Matt Nobriga, Emilio Laca (Statistician), and Dave Fullerton will be scheduled for
Version
0.1
Date
3/31/14
Author
Bruce DiGennaro,
Shawn Acuna
Change Description
First draft for review.
-3-
the 15th of April to further examine potential bias issues.
Item
5.
Topic
Purpose
Future Meetings and Next
Steps
Review schedule and next
steps.
Presenters
Bruce DiGennaro
Discussion Highlights




The Scoping Team will meet twice a month on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday from 2-4pm for the next few
months.
The next two meetings will be scheduled for April 1 from 2-4pm, and April 15, 2014 from 1-4pm.
Specific homework assignments for Scoping Team members are to:
o Review each priority workplan elements and key questions;
o Identify potential investigators; and
o Identify relevant data sets and potential limitations.
The IEP Resident Fish Team will be holding a meeting the week of 5/10 and will be continuing its
discussions regarding sampling.
Version
0.1
Date
3/31/14
Author
Bruce DiGennaro,
Shawn Acuna
Change Description
First draft for review.
-4-