The Coastline Must Be Protected at All Costs

Last month, chemical vials and medical waste washed ashore at beaches in Orange and San Diego counties. Discovery of the jetsam alarmed environmental officials and caused Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) to demand a U.S. Navy investigation into the source of the dumped material, suspected of being military issue.

On Wednesday, Wilson and the public unfortunately received only part of an answer from the Navy. Wilson reported that the Navy acknowledged responsibility for some medical waste that washed ashore in San Diego County.

But absolutely nothing was said about the 70 vials that were found along a 30-mile stretch of Orange County beaches. The vials were identified in lab tests as military-issue, nontoxic antiseptics that can be used by service personnel as antidotes in case of biological or chemical warfare.

The Navy did say that its investigation is continuing. Wilson should aggressively pursue the results of that probe and not allow what could have been an illegal dumping to quietly slip away.

County environmental officials suspect that the Navy is responsible for the waste material, and at a State Lands Commission hearing Tuesday in Santa Monica, Robert Merryman, the county’s environmental health director, said so.

The Navy, however, continues to deny Merryman’s charge. It claims that the vials just as easily could have come from non-Navy military installations, Veterans Administration hospitals or civilian hospitals. Perhaps.

Answers are needed to determine where the vials actually did come from and who is at fault for their being in the ocean in what appears to be a violation of Navy regulations governing the disposal of waste material at sea.

The Lands Commission is holding public hearings on the disposal incidents because it has the responsibility of administering millions of acres of tidelands and submerged lands.

There must be a determined effort and strict laws to protect the entire state coastline from pollution. Government at all levels has the responsibility to provide such protection, so it becomes especially exasperating when it is a branch of government, in this case the Navy, that is suspected of fouling up the environment. The Navy must be as aggressive as the commission and Sen. Wilson in seeking the source of the vials and wastes and taking strong action to discourage offshore dumping.