163 



In another section of this final report it has been noted 

 that under certain conditions the addition of nutrients to the 

 sea by the sewage may increase the number of phytoplankton in 

 these waters by a factor of 30, The vast quantity of particulate 

 organic material at such times may decrease the transparency to 

 less than 5 feeto Whether this decrease in transparency caused 

 by great nwmbers of plankton can be attributed directly to the 

 sewage must,, it appears, await further investigation and 

 probably a legal decision. 



Since the waters in the bay at this time do not, over 

 protracted periods s> conform to the transparency standards, it 

 is unreasonable to assume that removing the site of the outfall 

 from nearshore to a location 5 or more miles from shore will 

 increase the nearshore transparency except in the immediate 

 vicinity of the Hyperion plant o Certainly in the offshore 

 area the transparency will be decreased markedly from its 

 present average of 30 to 40 feeto How much the decrease will 

 be cannot be accurately determined 5 but at least at the B 

 stations along traverses 2, 3 5 and 4 the transparency will 

 average less than 20 feet. It is doubtful,, however, that the 

 transparency in area 3 (1,500 feet from shore) will change 

 from its present average, except at Hyperion, In other words, 

 visitors to the shore will not find the water to be any less 

 turbid than it now is, because the major portion of the turbidity 

 is due to natural phenomena. 



