Huntington Beach contamination case study
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.