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My latest story unravels a toxic mystery bubbling in the deep ocean – one that frustrated generations of scientists and has now come back to haunt us: Decades ago, the Los Angeles coast was a dumping ground for DDT waste. No one could see it – until now. https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-coast-ddt-dumping-ground
Remember DDT, the toxic chemical Rachel Carson warned us all about in Silent Spring in 1962? The nation’s largest DDT maker was here in LA. One way the factory got rid of its waste was by dumping thousands of barrels each month into the ocean near Catalina https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-coast-ddt-dumping-ground
When the barrels were too buoyant to sink on their own, one report said, workers simply punctured them. I went through old shipping logs, historical records, undigitized research and talked to so many scientists who helped me piece together what happened https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-coast-ddt-dumping-ground
As many as half a million barrels could still be underwater right now. The ocean buried the evidence for generations, but modern technology can take scientists to new depths. Check out the deep-sea footage captured by a @ucsantabarbara research team https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-coast-ddt-dumping-ground
The world today wrestles with BPA, microplastics, PFAS, the list of forever chemicals goes on... But DDT – the pesticide that first stunned and jolted the public into environmental action in the 1960s – persists as an unsolved and largely forgotten problem https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-coast-ddt-dumping-ground
Dilution is the solution to pollution, the saying used to go, but at what cost? As we increasingly look to the ocean to solve our problems, what are the forgotten lessons that we must relearn – and resolve – in order to forge a better future? https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-coast-ddt-dumping-ground
So grateful for all the scientists, then and now, who picked up the phone and went to great lengths to help answer my questions. It’s been a journey piecing together all the information for this article. Thank you for reading! https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-coast-ddt-dumping-ground
