Natural sources of sediment for the Palos Verdes margin, southern California, have been augmented by effluent discharged from Los Angeles County Sanitation District's sewage-treatment facility and by the reactivation of the Portuguese Bend landslide. Heavy minerals in very fine and fine sand (63-250 ??m) from beach and shelf sites off the Palos Verdes Peninsula distinguish effluent-affected sediment from unaffected deposits, and track the sediment contributed by the Portuguese Bend landslide. Heavy minerals also identify heterogeneous sediment sources for the nearshore zone and relate outer-shelf sediment to depositional cells north and south of the area.