The Enterococcus Project: February 2, 2004

On Monday, Feb. 2, 2004 (Press Release) – Groundhog Day – Channel Keeper began sampling 5 locations on Mission Creek and two locations on East Beach (east of where Mission Creek enters the ocean) to monitor enterococcus concentrations before, during and after the small storm that occurred on that day. A map of the sites can be found by clicking here. Sampling continued until Thursday, Feb. 5.

The following slides show the results. These results are preliminary. Within a few weeks we will combine Channel Keeper data with flow measurements made at the Mission Cr. sampling sites by UCSB and additional bacteriological data collected by the City of Santa Barbara during the storm. Our goal is to quantify the export of enterococcus from Mission Creek to the ocean and a full report should be available within a month. The “Groundhog” day storm was a small storm, less than an inch of rain fell and most of the runoff, and bacteria, came from “impervious” areas within the City of Santa Barbara – streets, pavement, sidewalks and roofs which quickly funnel runoff into the stream. Hopefully, we will acquire support that will allow us to do the same type of monitoring during a much bigger storm when the results are likely to be quite different.

Special Thanks to the following people for helping with this first event:

Christina Michael
Al Leydecker
Tim Robinson
Mark Lim
Terri Nichols
Michelle Tollett
Rick Margolin
Scotty Bull

We'd also like to thank UCSB and the City of Santa Barbara!

Click on the figures below for a more detailed explanation

To download a slide show describing the results, click here.

For a map of the sampling sites
click here.

For pictures of the event, click here.

Figure 1. Average enterococcus concentration during the rainstorm

Figure 2. Overall results into daily averages

Flow vs. Enterococcus concentration on all Mission Creek sites before, during and after the storm

Figure 3: y axis is plotted normally
(as shown below)

Figure 4: y axis as log plot

Figure 5. Enterococcus concentrations on sites downstream from Montecito Street, including two beach sites