Research published from UC Santa Barbara shows the coast of southern California was used as a dumping ground for industrial waste in the mid-1900s. Decades later, toxic chemicals and radioactive waste still exist on the ocean floor.
More than 10 years ago, UCSB marine science professor David Valentine went out to sea to do research and stumbled upon something unexpected that changed the focus of his work.
“Since 2011 when we first came across these barrels of waste on the sea floor during some submersible operations off the coast of LA,” he said.
Upon further investigation, Valentine and his team determined that the San Pedro Basin between the Port of LA and Catalina Island had been a dumping ground for industrial waste, including DDT.
DDT is a poisonous insecticide that was eventually banned in the ‘70s.
Valentine said in 1948, a Los Angeles company called Montrose became the nation’s largest manufacturer of DDT and, for many years, they disposed of large amounts of chemicals in the ocean. The chemicals were transported to the port and put on a barge.
“They would take that barge out to sea and they would turn on the pumps and pump the strong sulfuric acid out straight into the surface water in the middle of the channel,” he said.
Valentine’s team analyzed sediment samples from the ocean floor near the dump site, and found that the area is still highly contaminated.
The environmental impact of these toxic chemicals is not fully known, but Valentine said California sea lions and California condors that feed on marine species have high levels of DDT in their systems, and they’re experiencing serious health complications.
He said the latest research suggests that the area was used to dump toxic waste by Montrose and others.
“We think that some of those barrels may contain low level radioactive waste,” Valentine said.
To offer some perspective, he said radioactive barrels are slightly less worrisome than uncontained DDT that was dumped directly into the water and may have moved with ocean currents over time.
To better understand the scope and severity of the situation, Valentine said it’s necessary to map a much larger area of the ocean floor.
Valentine has been in contact with Central Coast congressmember Salud Carbajal’s office. Representative Carbajal and Senator Alex Padilla wrote a letter urging the Office of Management and Budget to fund ongoing research on the toxic dump sites.
“We need more resources when you consider the gravity and significance of the challenge before us, we cannot wait, we need the resources now,” Carbajal said.
Carbajal said his constituents on the Central Coast understand the seriousness of the situation and it needs to be mitigated before it further degrades the environment.
The research is published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
