Survival of Escherichia coli MC-6 of fecal origin in an estuarine environment as affected by time, water temperature, dissolved oxygen, salinity, and montmorillonite in diffusion chambers has been elucidated. Several in situ physical parameters were recorded simultaneously, and viable cell numbers were estimated. The survival of the bacteria varied seasonally. Montmorillonite addition extended the time needed for a 50% reduction of the viable cell population (t1/2) of cells by 40% over the t1/2 of cells in Rhode River water alone. The effect of this clay was not significantly greater between 50- to 1,000 mug/ml montmorillonite concentrations. In all experiments, the relationships among pairs of variables were studied by regression and correlation analysis. The slope between viable cell numbers and water temperatures increased about 50% for each 10 C increment in temperature and gave a correlation coefficient r = 0.617, significant at 95% confidence level. A similar correlation coefficient, r = 0.670, was obtained between water temperature and t1/2 of the initial cell population. In all experiments regressions were performed considering all variables after bacteria had been in the Rhode River environment for 3 days. Coefficient of multiple determination was estimated as R2 = 0.756. Approximately 75.6% of the variance of viable cell numbers can be explained by variation in water temperature, dissolved oxygen, and salinity. Simple correlation coefficients within the regression steps were also computed. Survival of bacteria was closely and negatively correlated with increasing water temperature (r = -0.717). It is suggested that water temperature is the most important factor in predicting fecal coliform survival from point and nonpoint sources in assessing water quality in an estuarine ecosystem.