It’s a frightening, yet virtually forgotten part of California’s history.
For more than half a century, the waters off of Southern California’s coastline were a legal dumping areas for hazardous materials, with major sites between Catalina and the mainland.
Now, a new study shows the pollution problem may be much worse than believed. It was first thought that thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of barrels on the ocean floor contained toxic chemical like DDT. Researchers now say some of deteriorating barrels contain low level radioactive wastes.
A U-C Santa Barbara researcher first rediscovered the toxic legacy more than a decade ago.
"We don't fully understand this problem," said Dr. David Valentine. He's a Marine Science, Geochemistry, and Microbiology researcher at UC Santa Barbara. "Part of it is every time we go looking for something, we find that, and something else."
In 2011, Valentine was doing research on underwater methane seeps. He had read some old documents referencing toxic waste dumping from the early 1900’s, to the 1970’s off the coast. Because he had access to remote submersible craft for his methane research, he took a few days to search the ocean floor. What he found was shocking,
"We saw all these little dots (on the ocean floor) which didn't belong," said Valentine. "It looked something like a trail of bread crumbs. We decided to go back again (with the remote underwater craft0, and this time, we had it fly about nine feet of the sea floor, and snap thousands of pictures. Several of them showed what appeared to be discarded waste barrels."
Incredible as it may seem, for decades the toxic waste dumping was legal, with permits to dump it in designated areas off the coast.
Later research showed there are thousands, perhaps tens of thousand of barrels on the ocean floor. We don't have an accurate idea of how many may be off the coast. They also found old military munitions which had been dumped in the ocean.
What Valentine thought they had discovered was a sea of DDT barrels scattered on the ocean floor. DDT was a synthetic insecticide developed in the 1940's which was widely used around the world. But by the 1950's restrictions were imposed on its use, because of environmental and toxic side effects. In the 1970's is was tally banned for use the U.S., because studies have linked it cancer.
But, Valentine says the latest study by his UCSB lab shows an even bigger problem.
"We observed all these barrels, but we also collected sediment," said Valentine. "What we found that was the seafloor had extremely high levels of DDT in it. And that posed a bit of a quandary for is, because if the DDT was in the barrels, why are we seeing it outside of the barrels?"
"We realized the waste barrels didn't contain DDT. The DDT was dumped directly in bulk into the ocean."
So, what is in the barrels? It led to studies which involved more underwater research, as well as diving through mountains of old government and historical documents.
Valentine says he and his team found paperwork in which federal regulators repeatedly claimed nuclear waste wasn’t dumped in the ocean. But, they also found a number of documents showing that it indeed did happen.
The evidence included ads from a company which boasted about taking care of radioactive wastes, and records from other businesses, and even VA hospitals showing that the company had disposed of their nuclear wastes. The company had a permit to dump low level nuclear wastes, but federal regulators claimed it was never activated, and therefore, it wasn't happening.
There are more than a dozen known dumpsites off the Southern California Coast. The researchers looked at one on a shelf off the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and a deeper one between the coast at Catalina. But, there was also what’s known as “short dumping”, where companies didn’t bother to go to approved dumpsites and just jettisoned wastes at random.
Research teams have received some government funding, but not nearly enough for a mapping program to outline the problem. This week, a coalition of 18 congressional representatives called for federal budget officials to make it a priority.
Valentine said we can’t even talk about what, if anything can be done about the situation until we know exactly what we are facing, and means a comprehensive mapping effort.
But, he said it’s clear that the DDT, and other toxic chemicals haven’t degraded. He believes they are causing a number of environmental problems, like a spike in cancer cases among sea lions that’s killed 25% of the population.
The latest findings by the research team were published this week in the scientific journal Environmental Science and Technology, and presented at a conference in New Orleans.
