The State : DDT Found in S.F. Bay

The highest levels of DDT found in California shellfish have been recorded in mussels that have ingested pesticides from the mud at the bottom of San Francisco Bay’s Richmond Harbor, state officials said. Soil samples taken from both the Santa Fe Channel and the Lauritzen Canal of Richmond Harbor have killed aquatic life within a few hours of being put into a test aquarium, said Michael Rugg, state Department of Fish and Game biologist. The cost of cleaning up the site could reach $12 million and could involving dredging portions of the harbor, state officials said. DDT was banned in 1972, but the source of the Richmond Harbor contamination may be from a five-acre site occupied by the United Heckathorn pesticide plant from the early 1950s to the late 1960s, officials said.