Waste Disposal in the Sea off Southern California

Abstract

Southern California, with a coastal population of 12 million people, releases about 4.4 million cubic meters of treated waste water into the Pacific every day via outfalls that discharge three to six kilometers offshore at a depth of 60 meters. Diffusers cause each liter of waste to be diluted by 150 liters of deep cool water preventing it from reaching the surface except for short periods in winter. Data on the constituents of the four largest waste streams are presented and a brief account of the research done by the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project is given. Although the waste water now discharged meets rigorous state standards (with minor exceptions) and the steady improvement in sea conditions over a decade has been well documented, there is a continuing debate over whether our coastal waters are adequately protected. This is primarily because the damaging effects of DDT and PCBs that were discharged more than 14 years ago have been slow to go away. Although the amounts of DDT and PCB in sea animals are only one- tenth what they were a decade ago they tend to obscure the value of the improvements and the present discharge practices. The alternatives to sea disposal seem likely to cause greater damage to the overall environment.