Partial Accord Reached on DDT Cleanup in Ocean

In a partial settlement of the nation’s largest case of offshore chemical contamination, the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts and 155 other municipalities agreed Tuesday to pay $45.7 million to help clean up the world’s largest known deposit of DDT, off the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The amount, which represents about 20% of the estimated cost of cleanup, would also help restore damaged fish and wildlife populations.

Filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, the settlement reinstates an agreement that was struck down by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals two years ago on grounds of insufficient evidence.

The federal government sought damages from local municipalities in Los Angeles, Ventura and Orange counties for operating sewage lines and treatment plants that processed DDT and dumped it into the ocean.

But the settlement leaves pending the federal government’s much larger claim against the Montrose Chemical Corp., the now-defunct company that manufactured the DDT in Torrance. Montrose representatives contend that the government lacks sufficient proof linking the company to any damage to natural resources.

In July, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared the 27 miles of contaminated ocean floor a Superfund site. Over a 24-year period ending in 1970, several million pounds of DDT seeped through county sewer lines from the Montrose chemical plant into the ocean off the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

In 1971, the county cut off the plant’s access to the sewer system because of growing concerns about ocean pollution.

Federal investigators found that wildlife around Catalina and the other Channel Islands remains contaminated by high DDT concentrations.