A new study on the effects of waste dumping in the ocean between Los Angeles and Catalina Island found that barrels dumped decades ago could contain radioactive material.
The area looked into by the study was one of 15 waste disposal sites on the coast of Southern California during the early and mid-20th century.
Among the chemicals dumped there was the pesticide DDT, banned nationwide in 1972.
University of California, Santa Barbara, researcher David Valentine, one of the study’s authors, spotted 60 barrels underwater in 2011 and 2013, according to Long Beach’s Press-Telegram.
The study, published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, argues that the levels and depth of DDT compounds in the sediment on the ocean floor mean that the chemical was dumped in bulk instead of in containers.
The authors wrote that “historical interpretations conflated physical barrels with ‘barrels’ as the volumetric unit of measure.”
The same company that dumped the DDT, Cal Salvage, was also historically involved in the dumping of radioactive waste containers. The company is defunct, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The negative effects DDT had on bald eagle eggs was one of the reasons it was banned.
On Tuesday, two California Democratic lawmakers, Sen. Alex Padilla and Rep. Salud Carbajal, called on the Office of Management and Budget to invest in research on the effects that DDT has had in the area near the dump sites.