Southern California coastline

Figure 6, Chart of the southern California coastline from Huntington Beach to Monarch Bay, showing locations of the Test Farm and other geographical features...

Field current patterns imposed on the model were approximated from data collected by Southern California Edison (17), owners of the station. For purposes of the demonstration simulation, a changing sequence of currents was selected to represent the history of local transport over a half tidal cycle of 6 hr. It consisted of a 0.3 knot current down-coast (south) for the first hour while copper discharge was occurring, a null period of zero current velocity for 2 hr, and a 3-hr period of 0.3 knot current upcoast. Current vectors were directed parallel to the coastline and were considered to represent average velocities through the full depth of the water column. Dispersion characteristics of the nearshore waters were represented by values of = 3 m sec and Ey = 2 m sec in the mixing zone, and were increased to 4 m sec and 3 m sec for all other elements (16). They were maintained steadily at these values throughout the 6-hr period simulated. 

Most of the seabed areas leased for offshore operations have been confined to sectors of the GOM and regions adjacent to the southern coastline of Alaska. Much of the remainder of the vast U.S. OCS has been closed to leasing and drilling activities by moratoria enacted by Congress and supported by presidential directives. Generally, public opinion has supported the moratoria because of the environmental harms caused by the 1969 blowout and oil spill at the Amoco Cadiz drilling platform off the California coast and the 1988 Exxon Valdez tanker accident and spill in Alaska s Prince William Sound. 

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