Notes on Huntington Beach TC testing:

(Boehm et al. 2002)

Spatial Scale:

They describe contamination events being primarily confined to rip cells (common to beaches—not so common to rocky shores, etc.), which are roughly 0.8-1.4km.

Temporal Scales:

Minutes to hours: controlled by wave action

Diurnal: sun kills bacteria, so levels highest in morning, decrease til sunset, then build up again overnight

Weeks (lunar cycle): neap and high tides affect how much gets flushed out of estuaries and potential sediment re-suspension

Months (seasons): rainy season (winter) causes much higher levels than in dry season (summer)

Years (El Nino): only when ENSO causes much greater rainfall—this then acts in the same way as seasonal fluctuations—but not all ENSO events significantly increase rainfall

Decades (human technology): new processing facilities, filters, EPA standards, etc. get implemented and this can have decadal or longer implications for contamination levels.