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CABRILLO Home | Océano | Reports | L.A. Reports
L.A. Reports |
| Studies of Polluted Sediment Offshore Los Angeles: Marine sediment on the continental shelf south of Los Angeles is contaminated with DDT and PCBs from historic sewage discharges. This effluent-affected sediment body, which has been the subject of litigation, adversely affects natural resources. USGS scientists, working in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Justice, in addition to the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the State of California, completed a major study to delineate the present distrubution and character of the effluent-affected sediment body and to model its natural recovery. This study showed that the sediment contains in excess of 100 tons of DDT and that surface concentrations of DDT will remain above 1 part per million well into the 21st century and possibly beyond. Refer to the three web sites listed below to learn more about the polluted sediment studies in the offshore region of Los Angeles; |
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| Lee, Homa J., McQuarrie, Megan, and Hibbeler, Lori, 2002, Understanding the Urban Influences on Santa Monica Bay, CA: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 155-02, http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/socal/smbay/.
Lee, Homa J., 1998, Pollution and Waste Disposal, Los Angeles Shelf: http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/socal/lashelf.html. Lee, Homa J., 2001, Distrubution and Fate of Contaminated Sea-floor Sediment on the Offshore Los Angeles: http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/pv/. [The sites listed above will exit the Océano site] Huntington Beach, California: During the summers of 1999 and 2000, beaches at Huntington Beach, California, were repeatedly closed to swimming because of high bacteria levels in the surf zone. The city's beaches are a major recreational and commercial resource, normally attracting millions of visitors each summer. One possible source of the bacterial contamination was the Orange County Sanitation District's sewage outfall, which discharges treated wastewater 4.5 miles offshore at a depth of 200 feet. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and cooperating oraganizations have been investigating whether ocean currents and waves transport the wasterwater to the beaches. These studies indicate that bacteria from the outfall are not a significant source of the beach contamination. |
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| Xu, Jingping, Noble, Marlene, Rosenfeld, Leslie, Largier, John, Hamilton, Peter, and Jones, Burt, 2003, Bacterial Contamination at Huntington Beach, California - Is It From a Local Offshore Wastewater Outfall?: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 024-03, http://geopubs.wr.usgs.gov/fact-sheet/fs024-03/.
Noble, Marlene, Xu, Jingping, Rosenfeld, Leslie, Largier, John, Hamilton, Peter, Jones, Burt, and Robertson, George, 2003, Huntington Beach Shoreline Contamination Investigation, Phase III: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 03-62, http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2003/of03-62/. Noble, Marlene, and Xu, Jingping, eds., 2004, Huntington Beach Shoreline Contamination Investigation, Phase III, Final Report: Coastal circulation and transport patterns: the likelihood of OCSD's plume impacting Huntington Beach shoreline: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2004-1019 [available on the World Wide Web at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2004/1019/]. [The site listed above will exit the Océano site] |
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For more information, please contact:
Project coordinator: Homa J. Lee
Web coordinator: Carol Reiss
Web developer: Lori Hibbeler
URL: http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/cabrillo/oceano/la_reports.html
Site maintained by: Laura Zink Torresan
Modified: 2 February 2005 (lh)
US Department of the Interior US Geological Survey Coastal & Marine Geology Program Western CMG