Author(s)

C. Wegemer, S. Mecca & R. Barber

Abstract

The MSB coupled embayment model of pollution flushing from a tidal basin has been applied to the Queenstown Creek of the Chesapeake Bay system and the results compared to an unpublished Rhodamine dye study conducted in 1987. The MSB model is based on the analytical tidal prism formulation developed by Barber. Until this present work, an MSB model of cascading tidal segments has not been applied to a real embayment. Tidal prism analyses have been validated against physical hydraulic modeling tests and one segment Mecca-Severino- Barber (MSB) models have shown agreement with real world dye studies, prompting this study of the more complex coupled embayment model. Presented in this paper is a simulation of pollution flushing from Queenstown Creek into the Chester River following the release of Rhodamine dye. The results are found to be in general agreement with the field data, and the nature of the MSB coupled embayment model obviates the need for the pollution return-flow parameter, b. Keywords: tidal prism, pollution flushing, tidal embayment, MSB model, Queenstown Creek, Chesapeake Bay. 1 Introduction Pollution flushing from coupled well-mixed tidal embayments is represented graphically and numerically in the MSB Coupled Embayment Model (MSBCEM) [1]. Written in Stella [7], realistic basin bathymetries are incorporated [2] as is the dynamic loading of pollutants [3]. The rate equations of Barber’s tidal

Keywords

tidal prism, pollution flushing, tidal embayment, MSB model, Queenstown Creek, Chesapeake Bay