Marine scientists say they may have found up to 25,000 barrels at a DDT dump site in the Pacific Published 3 hours ago
In this 2011 image provided by the University of California Santa Barbara, a barrel sits on the seafloor near the coast of Catalina Island, Calif. Marine scientists say they have found what they believe to be as many as 25,000 barrels that possibly contain DDT dumped off the Southern California coast near Catalina Island. (David Valentine/UC Santa Barbara / RV Jason, via AP)
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Print article SAN DIEGO Marine scientists say they have found what they believe to be as many as 25,000 barrels that possibly contain DDT dumped off the Southern California coast near Catalina Island, where a massive underwater toxic waste site dating back to World War II has long been suspected.
Staff
One barrel of thousands that Dr. Valentine found about 10 miles off the coast of Los Angeles. Photo: Screenshot/Valentine’s ROV Jason/CBS Los Angeles
In the waters between Catalina Island and Long Beach, there lies a toxic waste dumping ground so poisonous it’s thought to be responsible for a massive spike in cancer in California’s sea lions. Hundreds of thousands of barrels of DDT are on the ocean floor, and they’ve been there for decades.
The dumping ground’s existence, however, wasn’t confirmed until relatively recently. Although rumors of the DDT dumping ground have been whispered about in the scientific community for more than three decades, not one single person has been able to confirm them until now.
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Photo: Chris Carlson (AP)
A research vessel launched this week is on an urgent mission to map out damage from a long-overlooked crisis on the ocean floor, and they’re putting robots to work to help.
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In October, people living on Santa Catalina Island, which sits 22 miles (35 kilometers) off the coast of Southern California, were shocked to learn from a Los Angeles Times investigation that a scientist had found leaking barrels of dangerous waste strewn across the ocean floor. Residents had heard rumors that the nation’s largest DDT manufacturer, which was based in Los Angeles until 1982, had disposed of some of its waste product near the island, and a huge Superfund lawsuit in 2000 had confirmed the company had disposed waste into sewers that ran into the ocean. But records unearthed by the Times confirmed that the manufacturer had filled up a ship with barrels of DDT-tainted waste and dumped it off the coast once a month for almost 40 years, something unaddressed