Local environmental conditions determine the footprint of municipal effluent in coastal waters: a case study in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia.

To predict the likely effects of management action on any point source discharge into the coastal ocean, it is essential to understand both the composition of the effluent and the environmental conditions in the receiving waters. We illustrate a broadly-applicable approach to evaluating the comprehensive environmental footprint of a discharge, using regional geochemical budgets and nearfield monitoring. We take as a case study municipal effluent discharged into the Strait of Georgia (west coast of Canada), where there has been public controversy over the discharge of screened or primary-treated effluent directly into the ocean.