Field measurement program to determine far field plume dilution parameters

A description of the techniques used to obtain measurements of temperature, salinity, tidal velocity and tracer concentration required to determine the far field dilution in a shallow estuary is presented. The study was done to characterize the physical hydrography of the Bush River, a tributary estuary of the Chesapeake Bay, which is a possible recipient of the thermal discharge from a proposed power plant consisting of two 850 MWe nuclear generating units. Measurements of temperature and salinity along the axis of the estuary during periods of high and low fresh water inflow were obtained for use in the development of a one-dimensional-segmented transient state model of the estuary. Computer concentrations from the model compared favorably with measured dye concentrations for the same periods of high and low freshwater inflow