A Los Angeles Times investigation last fall showing as many as half a million barrels of a now-banned pesticide may be sitting on the ocean floor off Catalina Island has led a local assemblyman to propose a new resolution calling on the federal government to take action to protect the island’s ecosystem.
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The resolution, AJR 2, authored by Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell, D-Long Beach, does not specify what action exactly should be taken regarding the toxic waste, nor is any specific funding attached.
The chemical DDT, or dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, has long been known as a cause of a host of environmental problems: sea lions have contracted an aggressive cancer, brown pelicans’ and California condors’ eggshells have thinned, and a significant accumulation of the chemical has been found in bottlenose dolphins.