A little - known environmental disaster is lie in wait off the seashore of southern California . In the mid-20th century , the ocean bottom somewhere between Long Beach and Catalina Island became the site of a deepsea dumping reason . While the recitation stopped tenner ago , the seafloor is still litter with hundreds of thousands of waste - laden barrel , including many holding the now - banned pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane ( DDT ) .
Once a widely used insecticide , DDTbecame infamous for its environmental impact and its effect on both animal and human health . While much of its effects on health are still not deeply understood , DDT has been link to a emcee of replica issues and is thought to be carcinogenic in humans . After these numerous issues came to spark , the US ban the use of goods and services ofDDTin 1972 . However , that was certainly not the end of the narrative . DDT is notorious as it builds up in food for thought Ernst Boris Chain and lingers with ecosystems for decades — even today , most peoplehave delineate amounts of DDT in their bodies .
California was a ball-shaped hub of this nasty stuff . In the post - war time period , Montrose Chemical Corporation of California became the world ’s enceinte supplier of DDT from their flora in Los Angeles . Not only did they leak tons of DDT into the ocean through the local sewer arrangement , they also dumped an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 barrel of DDT - relate waste into the ocean every month between 1947 to 1961 , allot to areport producedby a California Regional Water Quality Control Board in the 1980s . In amount , they estimated 500,000 barrel braid with DDT were sit down on the sea trading floor off the slide of Los Angeles .
While sure shocking , the report was mostly forgotten about until the troubled dumping site was bring to public aid once again by David Valentine and a team of marine scientists at the University of California , Santa Barbara . As account in the journalEnvironment Science & Technologyin 2019 , they used submersible submarines and chemical samples to written document and set about to understand the effect of the waste dumped at the site . Through their survey , they saw around 60 waste drum located at a profoundness of around 900 meters ( ~2,950 feet ) . All in all , they concluded : the " disposal summons was inherently sloppy , " and " there is evidence to suggest that the wastefulness was dump purposefully . "
It ’s not yet cleared what effect this is having on the nautical life around southern California and beyond , but some worrying tinge are bulge to egress . In December 2020 , investigator from Marine Mammal Center Sausalitopublished a studyon almost 400 waste California ocean lions ( Zalophus californianus ) and found that just under 25 percent had cancer . Most of the ocean lions were infected with herpes , which is potential to have play a ingredient in the cancer rates , but the investigator also found a astonishingly high amount of DDT and PCBs , another environmental pollutant , in their blubber . The field of study even concluded that their findings are potential to have implications for human wellness too .
The sea Leo of California are just one example of nautical life potentially suffering the wallop by the dumpsite , but it look unlikely to be the last .
[ H / T : CBS News ]
