![]() U.S. Geological Survey
Huntington Beach Shoreline Contamination Investigation, Phase IIICoastal Circulation and Transport Patterns: The Likelihood of OCSD's Plume Impacting Huntington Beach ShorelineBy Note: this report is an executive summary. You can also see the full version: USGS Open-File Report 2004-1019. |
Skip Navigation Links Home Abstract 1. Background 2. Hypotheses 3. Objectives and Methods 4. Measurement Program 5. Major Findings: 5.1. Surfzone Bacterial Contamination Patterns 5.2. Outfall Plume Tracking 5.3. Coastal Transport Processes 6. Transport Processes 7. Conclusions 8. References 9. Acknowledgements |
AbstractA consortium of agencies have conducted an extensive investigation of the coastal ocean circulation and transport pathways off Huntington Beach, with the aim of identifying any causal links that may exist between the offshore discharge of wastewater by OCSD and the significant bacterial contamination observed along the Huntington Beach shoreline. This is the third study supported by OCSD to determine possible land-based and coa Although the study identifies several possible coastal ocean pathways by which diluted wastewater may be transported to the beach, including internal tide, sea-breeze and subtidal flow features, there were no direct observations of either the high bacteria concentrations seen in the OCSD plume at the shelf break reaching the shoreline in significant levels or of an association between the existence of a coastal ocean process and beach contamination at or above AB411 levels. It is concluded that the OCSD plume is not a major cause of beach contamination; no causal links could be demonstrated. This conclusion is based on the absence of direct observation of plume-beach links, on analysis of the spatial and temporal patterns of shoreline contamination and coastal ocean processes, and on the observation of higher levels of contamination at the beach than in the plume. In order to view figures within this document, you will need to download PDF files. PDF files can be viewed using Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not currently possess this software, you can download it at: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html 1. BackgroundThe beaches off Huntington Beach ( Download the entire 35-page paper of03-62.pdf as a single large PDF file (9.4 MB) For more information, contact:Marlene NobleJingping Xu U.S. Geological Survey 345 Middlefield Road, MS 999 Menlo Park, California 94025 |
U.S. Department of the Interior,
U.S. Geological Survey,
Western Region Coastal and Marine Geology
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URL of this page: http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2003/of03-62/
Maintained by: Michael Diggles
Created: January 23, 2003
Last modified: May 6, 2005 (mfd)