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J A Redman

Publications and source records attributed to J A Redman.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Generation of enterococci bacteria in a coastal saltwater marsh and its impact on surf zone water quality.

Elevated levels of enterococci bacteria, an indicator of fecal pollution, are routinely detected in the surf zone at Huntington State and City Beaches in southern California. A multidisciplinary study was carried out to identify sources of enterococci bacteria landward of the coastline. We find that enterococci bacteria are present at high concentrations in urban runoff, bird feces, marsh sediments, and on marine vegetation. Surprisingly, urban runoff appears to have relatively little impact on surf zone water quality because of the long time required for this water to travel from its source to the ocean. On the other hand, enterococci bacteria generated in a tidal saltwater marsh located near the beach significantly impact surf zone water quality. This study identifies a potential tradeoff between restoring coastal wetlands and protecting beach water quality and calls into question the use of ocean bathing water standards based on enterococci at locations near coastal wetlands.

Conservation of Natural Resources↗

Pathogen filtration, heterogeneity, and the potable reuse of wastewater.

Filtration is commonly employed in water and wastewater treatment to remove particles and reduce the concentration of microbial pathogens. All physical models of packed-bed filtration are based on a proportional relationship between particle removal per unit depth of bed and the local particle concentration, dC/dz = -C/l, where l is the filtration length scale. Although l is known to vary with time and filter depth for heterogeneous suspensions or "dirty" beds, this paper demonstrates that the filtration rates of even seemingly monodisperse particle suspensions under clean-bed filtration conditions cannot be described with a single filtration length scale. A new model is derived for particle filtration that accounts for heterogeneity at two different spatial scales. Heterogeneity at the scale of the pathogen and/or collector (microscale heterogeneity) leads to a slow power-law decay of contaminant concentration with distance, instead of the fast exponential decay predicted by the standard model. Heterogeneity at the filter scale (macroscale heterogeneity) provides another level of complexity that can be evaluated once microscale heterogeneity effects are characterized. This model for microscale and macroscale heterogeneous particle filtration is verified by filtration experiments on a recombinant analogue of the waterborne pathogen Norwalk virus.

Filtration↗