Huntington Beach shoreline contamination investigation, Phase III; Coastal circulation and transport patterns: The likelihood of OCSD's plume impacting Huntington Beach shoreline
Open-File Report
2003-62
By: Marlene Noble, Jingping Xu, Leslie Rosenfeld, John Largier, Peter Hamilton, Burt Jones, and George Robertson
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Abstract
A 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.
Suggested Citation
Noble, M., Xu, J., Rosenfeld, L., Largier, J., Hamilton, P., Jones, B., Robertson, G., 2003, Huntington Beach shoreline contamination investigation, Phase III; Coastal circulation and transport patterns: The likelihood of OCSD's plume impacting Huntington Beach shoreline: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2003-62, HTML Document, https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr0362.
ISSN: 2331-1258 (online)
Study Area
| Publication type | Report |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | USGS Numbered Series |
| Title | Huntington Beach shoreline contamination investigation, Phase III; Coastal circulation and transport patterns: The likelihood of OCSD's plume impacting Huntington Beach shoreline |
| Series title | Open-File Report |
| Series number | 2003-62 |
| DOI | 10.3133/ofr0362 |
| Year Published | 2003 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | U.S. Geological Survey |
| Description | HTML Document |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| City | Huntington Beach |