Decades-old industrial dumping off SoCal coast still wreaking havoc on seafloor: Study

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5494426-california-los-angeles-
seafloor-industrial-waste/

Barrels of industrial waste dumped into the Pacific Ocean decades ago are 
still affecting the deep seafloor off the Los Angeles coast, a new study 
has found.

The discarded barrels, which have for years been encircled by mysterious 
white halos, have likely been leaking a caustic alkaline waste product 
into the marine environment, according to the study, published on Tuesday 
in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Nexus.

Scientists had initially linked the halos, observed in images captured in 
2020, to the toxic pesticide DDT, whose manufacturing processes unleashed 
copious amounts of acidic waste into the ocean from the 1930s through the 
1970s.

Although DDT manufacturing did produce alkaline byproducts in addition to 
the acidic waste, other major industries such as oil refining generated 
significant alkaline residuals as well, the study authors noted.

“One of the main waste streams from DDT production was acid and they 
didn’t put that into barrels,” lead author Johanna Gutleben, a 
postdoctoral scholar at the University of California San Diego’s Scripps 
Institution of Oceanography, said in a statement.

“It makes you wonder: What was worse than DDT acid waste to deserve being 
put into barrels?” Gutleben asked.

The researchers found that the caustic, alkaline waste emanating from 
these barrels was so powerful that it transformed parts of the seafloor 
into extreme environments reminiscent of natural hydrothermal vents. These 
vents contain specialized bacteria that thrive in conditions where most 
life cannot survive, the authors noted.

The severity and extent of this mystery waste’s impacts, however, depend 
on just how many of the barrels are planted on the seafloor and the 
specific chemicals they contain, the researchers explained.

Yet senior author Paul Jensen, an emeritus marine microbiologist at 
Scripps, said in a statement that he would have expected the alkaline 
waste to dissipate quickly in seawater.

Instead, he observed, the contaminants have persisted for more than half a 
century — indicating that this waste “can now join the ranks of DDT as a 
persistent pollutant with long-term environmental impacts.”

While the number of barrels remains unknown, the researchers deployed a 
remotely operated vehicle to collect sediment cores adjacent to five of 
the containers. They then analyzed the sediment samples and hardened 
pieces of halo barrel crust, to assess DDT levels, mineral content and 
microbial DNA. 

As for DDT, the scientists found that concentrations of the chemical and 
its byproducts were highly elevated relative to control sites but did not 
change with distance from the barrels — leading the researchers to 
conclude that the DDT was not linked to this contamination.

On the other hand, they discovered that the pH levels of the microbial DNA 
were remarkably high, indicating that the halos contained waste that was 
very alkaline, also known as a base.

These sediments, the researchers observed, had low bacterial diversity 
compared to other surrounding sediments, and the bacteria came from 
families habituated to alkaline environments, such as deep-sea 
hydrothermal vents or alkaline hot springs.

Although the researchers were not able to identify the specific chemicals 
present inside the barrels, they stressed the importance in now using 
white halos to help track alkaline waste — and thereby determine the 
extent of the contamination in this region.

The authors also said that they are now experimenting with DDT 
contaminated sediments from the dump sites to pinpoint microbes capable of 
breaking down the toxic pesticide.

“This adds to our understanding of the consequences of the dumping of 
these barrels,” said Jensen. “It’s shocking that 50-plus years later 
you’re still seeing these effects. We can’t quantify the environmental 
impact without knowing how many of these barrels with white halos are out 
there, but it’s clearly having a localized impact on microbes.”


-- 
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump.  We look 
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Thank you for cleaning up the disasters of the 2008-2017, 2020-2024 Obama 
/ Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the 
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