TITLE
Recommendation to request City Attorney to draft a resolution calling on the United States Congress and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take all measures necessary to prevent further harm to natural resources, wildlife and citizens from the DDT waste dumped in the waters between Long Beach and Santa Catalina Island, and support Assembly Joint Resolution 2 by Assemblymember Patrick O’Donnell.
DISCUSSION
BACKGROUND:
DDT, or dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, is a toxic pesticide that was banned in 1972 due to it causing a number of environmental problems, including harming wildlife such as sea lions, brown pelicans, California condors and dolphins and other birds and fish. The nation’s largest manufacturer of DDT was based in Los Angeles.
A Superfund site was declared off the coast of the Palos Verdes Peninsula when it was discovered that the company disposed toxic waste through the sewage pipes that poured into the ocean.
However, much less was known about the company’s barging of additional barrels of toxic waste out to sea to dispose of the waste. A recent Los Angeles Times investigation, based on the work of local scientists, estimates that as many as half a million barrels of toxic waste from DDT, could be lying underwater in the waterway between Long Beach and Santa Catalina Island.
This recently discovered barrel dumpsite far exceeds, by as much as 40 times greater, the amount of DDT in the previously identified Superfund site off the coast of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell has authored Assembly Joint Resolution 2, which calls on the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take all measures necessary to “prevent further damage to California’s citizens, wildlife, and natural resources by the DDT waste dumped in the waters near Santa Catalina Island.” Assemblyman O’Donnell’s resolution was approved by the Assembly, and is currently being considered in the Senate.
U.S. Senator Di...
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