Enormous toxic DDT dump found off Californian coast
Ocean survey’s chief scientist says extent of DDT waste site near Catalina Island is “staggering”.
Scientists from the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) say they have found what they believe to be more than 25,000 barrels of DDT dumped off the southern Californian coast.
The shocking discovery was made during a survey of the sea bed between Santa Catalina Island and the Los Angeles coast.
Scientists had long suspected a chemical waste dump lay in the area, as levels of toxic chemicals in sediments and the ecosystem are unusually high in that part of the ocean.
Shipping logs show that industrial companies used the area as a dumping ground until 1972, and the environmentally damaging practice of disposing of the highly toxic waste at sea probably dates from the Second World War.
Underwater drones discovered 27,345 “barrel like” images when SIO surveyed 36,000 acres of the seabed, at depths of up to 900m.
Eric Terrill, chief scientist of the survey and director of the Marine Physical Laboratory at SIO told AP that the area covered was “staggering”.
“It really was a surprise to everybody who’s worked with the data and who sailed at sea,” he told reporters on Monday.
