UpdatedTue, May 4, 2021 at 6:05 pm PT Reply For decades, thousands of barrels of DDT were dumped in the deep ocean between Catalina Island and Palos Verdes, and authorities are only just beginning to understand the extent of the newly mapped dumpsite. (Shutterstock / Andy Konieczny) PALOS VERDES, CA — The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to press the Environmental Protection Agency to expedite the clean-up of 27,000 barrels of toxic sludge dumped between Palos Verdes and Catalina Island. Though the barrels of the banned pesticide DDT have been rusting at the bottom of the ocean for decades, scientists only recently discovered and began mapping a toxic dump site the size of San Francisco. The discovery helps explain why the suspected carcinogen is persistently found in Southern California's marine life and coastal waters nearly 50 years after it was banned. It also raises a new challenge: how to safely remove it and who should foot the bill.