The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported that between the 1930’s and the 1970’s, 14 areas off the Southern California coast were designated marine areas for dumping military explosives, radioactive waste, and refinery byproducts — including 3 million metric tons of petroleum waste.

David Valentine, a Professor of Geochemistry and Microbiology who is the founding director of the Marine Science program and leads a research team from the University of California Santa Barbara, discovered old discarded barrels sitting nearly 1,000 meters underwater near Santa Catalina Island using an underwater camera.

High potent concentrations of DDT – long ago buried – have spread across an underwater area larger than the city of San Francisco. For more detailed information, read here (Disentangling the History of Deep Ocean Disposal for DDT and Other Industrial Waste Off Southern California published in Environmental & Science Technology).

Additionally, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported that between the 1930’s and 1970’s, 13 other areas off the Southern California coast were approved sites for dumping of military explosives, radioactive waste, and various refinery by-products including 3 million metric tons of petroleum waste.

Given the amount and scope of waste in the area, channel swimmers are advised to swallow as little water as possible while swimming from Santa Catalina Island to the Palos Verdes Peninsula on the Southern California mainland.

Photo and illustration courtesy of Jacob T. Schmid, Mong Sin Christine Wu, Hailie E. Kittner, J. Samuel Arey, Douglas E. Hammond, and David L. Valentine of the Department of Marine Science, University of California, Santa Barbara.

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