FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL 72, NO 2 



per day. The acid waste was not tested, but if the 

 concentration of DDT was similar to that in the 

 alkaline waste, it would amount to an additional 

 175 lb (79 kg) of DDT residues per day. 



The average inflow of DDT into the White Point 

 sewerage plant during December 1969 through 

 March 1970 was estimated at 652 lb (296 kg) per 

 day. The amount measured in the sewers at the 

 Montrose plant was 647 (293 kg) per day. The 

 amount trucked out as alkaline waste only was 

 estimated at 550 ( 250 kg) per day. Considering the 

 difficulties in sampling such large volumes of 

 material and the fact that the samples were taken 

 in different localities at different times, there is 

 remarkable agreement among them. 



It is difficult to determine just how much DDT 

 finally was pumped into the ocean after treatment 

 at the sewerage plant. Some of it was undoubtedly 

 removed in grit, grease skimming operations, and 

 in dried sludge. 



At the Hyperion treatment plant (city of Los 

 Angeles), the digested sludge is pumped into the 

 ocean, although some of it, at least in the past, has 

 been used for fertilizer. The DDT input into the 

 Hyperion plant was estimated to be on the order of 

 0.6 lb (0.27 kg) a day (tests by Hyperion personnel 

 cited in Los Angeles Times, 7 October 1970) so, 

 insofar as the DDT input into the ocean is con- 

 cerned, it has had little impact. The White Point 

 treatment plant has never discharged its sludge 

 into the ocean (Terry Hindrichs, Southern 

 California Coastal Water Research Project, pers. 

 commun.) except during a short period of heavy 

 rains in 1955. Until 1959, digested sludge was 

 spread on nearby fields to air dry. Since 1959 a 

 centrifuge has been used to partially dry sludge. 

 The resulting cakes have been used for fertilizer or 

 landfill. 



CSDLAC personnel were unable to get reliable 

 estimates of the DDT content of their effluent into 

 the ocean until December 1970 (Carry and Red- 

 ner, 1970), long after Montrose stopped dumping 

 most of their wastes. Nine samples that they took 

 from the effluent into the ocean in December 

 showed that the average total CHC entering the 

 ocean was 130 lb (59 kg) a day. The influent into 

 the sewerage disposal plant in December had a 

 load of 153 lb (69 kg) per day. The influent samples 

 were taken after the grit chambers so any CHC 

 removed in grit would not have been included. If 

 we assume that sludge removal accounted for a 

 15% loss of CHC in December 1969 through March 

 1970, between influent (average 652 lb or 296 kg 



per day) and effluent into the ocean, then, the 

 ocean discharge would have been about 552 lb 

 (250 kg) per day of CHC for these months. This is 

 about 100 short tons (91 metric tons) per year or 

 about 10 times the amount of pesticides estimated 

 to be carried into the Gulf of Mexico each year by 

 the Mississippi River (Butler, 1969). 



Montrose received a permit to dump its wastes 

 into the CSDLAC sewer system in 1953, but it had 

 been dumping for a few years before that accord- 

 ing to company personnel. The continuous dump- 

 ing of large quantities of DDT wastes into the 

 ocean at a single point over a period of about 20 yr 

 presented an unparalleled opportunity to study 

 the effects of DDT on the ocean environment. Un- 

 fortunately the one-time opportunity to take ad- 

 vantage of the situation was not fully realized 

 until some time after the dumping had stopped, 

 and no large-scale coordinated investigation was 

 undertaken to exploit this ecological windfall. 



An investigation of pesticide pollution of the 

 marine environment was initiated at the Fishery 

 Oceanography Center (FOC), La Jolla, in 1970. 

 Personnel at FOC have collected samples of bot- 

 tom muds, fishes, and other biological samples 

 primarily from the ocean off Los Angeles in order 

 to study the effects of heavy DDT pollution in the 

 marine environment. 



Collections of marine organisms taken for other 

 purposes, some dating back to 1949, were avail- 

 able for study. Most of the present paper is based 

 on DDT levels found in specimens from one of 

 these collections of a myctophid fish, Stenob- 

 rachius leucopsarus, found in the ocean off south- 

 ern California in an attempt to trace the historical 

 buildup of DDT and its metabolites in the marine 

 environment as reflected in this species. 



MATERIALS 



The California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries 

 Investigations (CalCOFI) has taken plankton 

 samples over an extensive area off California and 

 Baja California since 1949. These samples were 

 obtained over a predetermined pattern of stations 

 in order to determine the species present, their 

 numbers, and their distribution. The most inten- 

 sive sampling took place during the 1950's; during 

 the 1960's the number of CalCOFI cruises was 

 reduced considerably. 



All fish and fish eggs are routinely sorted out of 

 the collections for identification. About 600 



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