Thousands of Barrels of Suspected Toxic DDT Found Dumped Off the California Coast

takyon writes:

Thousands of barrels of suspected toxic DDT found dumped in California ocean

Marine scientists say they have found what they believe to be as many as 25,000 barrels possibly containing DDT dumped off the southern California coast near Catalina Island, where a massive underwater toxic waste site dating back to the second world war has long been suspected.

The 27,345 "barrel-like'" images were captured by researchers at the University of California San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography. They mapped more than 36,000 acres of seafloor between Santa Catalina Island and the Los Angeles coast in a region previously found to contain high levels of the toxic chemical in sediments and in the ecosystem.

Historical shipping logs show that industrial companies in southern California used the basin as a dumping ground until 1972, when the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act, also known as the Ocean Dumping Act, was enacted.

Resting deep in the ocean, the exact location and extent of the dumping was not known until now.

DDT is short for dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane.

Scripps Oceanography Completes Seafloor Survey Using Robotics, Finds Thousands of Possible Targets of Interest at Dumpsite off Coast of Los Angeles.

Also at the LA Times.

Journal Reference:
Veronika Kivenson, Karin L. Lemkau, Oscar Pizarro, et al. Ocean Dumping of Containerized DDT Waste Was a Sloppy Process [open], Environmental Science & Technology (DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.8b05859)

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