Toxic Contamination in Our Oceans Can Reach Our Kitchen Tables | Opinion

It’s been four years since scientists rediscovered hundreds of tons of DDT—a pesticide banned for its toxicity and risk to humans—dumped into the ocean just off the coast of Los Angeles. For at least 15 years, Montrose Chemical Corporation improperly disposed of DDT into the ocean. After multiple lawsuits, the company and other responsible parties settled for $140 million—a drop in the bucket compared to the destruction it caused.
The ocean has been our dumping ground for too long, and now, nearly 80 years after Montrose started dumping DDT into the ocean, the repercussions are coming to light and still not fully understood.
Earlier this year, researchers discovered the link between contaminants in the sediments off the Los Angeles coast and higher vertebrates. They found that tiny zooplankton and fish living in mid-to-deep waters were tainted with various compounds related to DDT. As smaller creatures are consumed, the fat-soluble contaminants magnify up the food chain to predatory fish, marine mammals, birds, and humans.
This study confirmed our significant concerns—remnants of this environmental crime can affect deep sea life, impacting our food chain, ultimately threatening human health. Multiple studies suggest that DDT chemical contaminants in humans can increase the likelihood of cancer, immune dysfunction, and reproductive health problems.
Sea lions are developing a fatal reproductive cancer due to DDT levels in the fish they eat. Some bald eagles on Santa Catalina Island are unable to reproduce as DDT causes their eggshells to become too thin, leading to shell breakage before eagle chicks have a chance to fully develop. This is also happening to endangered California condors, recently brought back from the brink of extinction, who depend on marine mammal carcasses as their main source of sustenance along the coast.
The common denominator to this multi-species problem is the fish in the ocean that not only feed sea lions and bald eagles, but also find their way to our kitchens.
Despite the mounting evidence, this issue, like many wildlife health issues, continues to fall through the regulatory cracks even though it has long-term implications for human and animal health.
Nearly three years ago, we reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for their help to assess the potential impact this massive DDT dumping has on human health. Both agencies were not willing to do the in-depth studies needed to determine the true impact of the pollution.
We then contacted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to request more samples be collected. They performed a study focused only on human food, which found no volitive pesticide. The study was far too limited to determine the true potential impact of DDT on human health, putting us back to square one.
The problem is twofold. First, each agency regulates and tests different areas, but none of them look specifically for how environmental disasters like this affect the bigger picture. Their investigative efforts have been limited and the data gathered is inadequate. This has left us in a quagmire of bureaucracy since 2021, and the risk continues.
The second problem is newer and potentially more difficult to rectify—the Supreme Court’s reversal of the Chevron doctrine, which has jeopardized federal agencies’ ability to regulate and address environmental issues. This adds more layers and legal challenges that hampers further action on DDT.
The health of the ocean is intimately tied to human health. Marine mammals are sentinels of the sea, and they are sounding alarm bells—but we’re not listening. DDT contamination needs to be aggressively investigated, not pushed aside because it’s an older issue. There are still many unanswered questions, and if seafood sourced from DDT contaminated waters is consumed by people across the country, it could have serious health implications.
Despite all of this, the governmental agencies continue to not have a coordinated and focused response to address this serious and potentially deadly environmental mess just off our shoreline. What’s more, without the Chevron doctrine, we are likely to see more administrative chaos that will come at the expense of answers on DDT contamination.
The FDA, EPA, and HHS need to designate a single agency to take charge when ocean contamination threatens to impact human health. And they need to be prepared to defend their authority to do so.
We recommend forming a joint interagency task force that would determine the impacts of legacy DDT on the ocean and humans, expedite the cleanup process, and ensure significant penalties for those who pollute our ocean.
It’s not “only” deep-sea fish and sea lions whose health is at risk. It’s humans as well, and our actions ought to be commensurate with the gravity of the situation.
Congressman Ted Lieu represents California’s 36th District and is co-chair of the California Coastal Caucus.
Cecily Majerus is the chief executive officer of The Marine Mammal Center.
The views expressed in this article are the writers’ own.