George Bennett

Growing concern over the closure of public-supply wells because of ground-water contamination has led the State Water Board to establish the Ground-Water Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program. With the aid of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the program goals are to enhance understanding and provide a current assessment of ground...

As a result of pumping and subsequent declines in water levels, chloride concentrations have increased in water from wells in the Eastern San Joaquin Ground-Water Subbasin, about 80 miles east of San Francisco (Montgomery Watson, Inc., 2000). Water from a number of public-supply, agricultural, and domestic wells in the western part of the subbasin adjacent to the San Joaquin Delta...

Accurately quantifying net loads in tidal systems is difficult owing to the high variability in constituent concentrations over the vastly different time scales present in these systems. Perhaps most difficult is the measurement of fluxed over the tidal time scale. On this scale, the net export of the constituent is orders of magnitude less than the bulk exchange in either direction...

Suspended sediment fluxes to and from tidal wetlands are of increasing concern because of habitat restoration efforts, wetland sustainability as sea level rises, and potential contaminant accumulation. We measured water and sediment fluxes through two channels on Browns Island, at the landward end of San Francisco Bay, United States, to determine the factors that control sediment fluxes...

We analyzed bioavailability, photoreactivity, fluorescence, and isotopic composition of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) collected at 13 stations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta during various seasons to estimate the persistence of DOC from diverse shallow water habitat sources. Prospective large-scale wetland restorations in the Delta may change the amount of DOC available to...

No abstract available.

Water exported from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta supplies drinking water to more than 22 million people in California. At certain times of the year, Delta waters contain relatively high concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and bromide. During these times, chlorination of Delta water for drinking water disinfection will form disinfection byproducts, such as...

Specific UV absorbance (SUVA) is defined as the UV absorbance of a water sample at a given wavelength normalized for dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration. Our data indicate that SUVA, determined at 254 nm, is strongly correlated with percent aromaticity as determined by 13C NMR for 13 organic matter isolates obtained from a variety of aquatic environments. SUVA, therefore, is...

We examined seasonal and spatial variation in bacterioplankton composition in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta (CA) using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis. Cloned 16S rRNA genes from this system were used for putative identification of taxa dominating the T-RFLP profiles. Both cloning and T-RFLP analysis indicated that Actinobacteria...

Molecular-level condensed tannin analyses were conducted on a series of mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) leaves at various stages of decomposition in a tropical estuary. Total molecular tannin yields ranged from 0.5% ash-free dry weight (AFDW) in the most highly degraded black leaves (6-7 weeks in the water) up to >7% AFDW in fresh leaves (80% procyanidin (PC) with the remainder being...

No abstract available.

Estuaries receive large quantities of suspended sediments following the first major storm of the water year. The first-flush events transport the majority of suspended sediments in any given year, and because of their relative freshness in the hydrologic system, these sediments may carry a significant amount of the sediment-associated pesticide load transported into estuaries. To...