Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 16
2
Sources of Pollution and Habitat Change
Southern Californians have lived with contaminants and habitat change
since before 1572, when Juan Cabrillo's ship entered the Bahia de Los Fuo-
mos (Bay of Smokes, now Santa Monica Bay) and witnessed coastal Indians
sealing their boats with tar from local oil seeps. I6day, the ever-growing
population of about 15 million has dramatically increased its utilization of
marine resources and the types and amounts of contaminants produced
and released to the Southern California Bight. These contaminants stem
from sewage discharges, aerial fallout, land runoff, industrial and munitions
disposal, dredged material disposal, and thermal enrichment. As a result,
some of the bight's coastal waters and underlying sediments have become
polluted and marine resources have been degraded.
This chapter describes the major human activities that have impacted
the bight's marine environment and discusses in detail the various con-
taminants that may derive from these activities. They include wastes from
petroleum exploration and production, radionuclides, pathogenic organ-
isms, waste heat, organic matter, nutrients, trace metals, and synthetic
organic chemicals. Since this chapter is intended to provide an overview
of contamination, sources and amounts of contaminants rather than their
environmental impacts are emphasized, followed by a brief overview of
the regional and local environmental problems that have attracted public,
regulatory, and scientific attention.
16
OCR for page 17
17
TABLE 2-1 Total Estimated Average Daily Wastewater Flows in 1984-1985 to the Southern
California Bight from Seven Large Publicly Owned Sewage Treatment Plants
Outfall Name
Discharge (millions of gal/day)
Primal SecondarySludge
Oxnard> Ventura County
Sanitation Districts None 18None
Hypenon, Los Angeles
City Bureau of Salutation 292 974
Joint Water Pollution Control
Plant, Los Angeles County
Sanitation Districts 183b 179None
County Sanitation Districts
of Orange County 94 138None
South East Regional
Reclamation Authonty 12.5 NoneNone
Encina Water Pollution
Control Facility 11 5None
Point Loma, City of San Diego 156 NoneNone
Totals 742 4434
Grand total 1,190
Tenninated, per court order, November 1987.
bAdvanced pnma~y, which removes 80 percent of solids (granary removes 60
percent).
SOURCE: SCCWRP, 1986a.
MAJOR SOURCES OF CONTAMINANTS
Sixteen municipal sewage treatment plants discharge partially treated
sewage directly into the U.S. waters of the Southern California Bight. In
addition, more than 230 million gal/day of treated sewage is carried by
coastal rivers and storm drains from inland Publicly Owned Treatment
Works (POTWs). In 1985, over 1.2 billion gallons of effluent were dis-
charged daily into the bight's coastal waters by seven major municipal
wastewater dischargers (Bible 2-1 and Figure 2-1~.
Over the years, major strides have been made to decrease the amounts
of total solids and contaminants in the discharges, even as the total vol-
ume of sewage discharges has increased (Figure 2-2) (Southern California
Coastal Water Research Project iSCCWRP], 1986a; Summers et al., 1987~.
This has been accomplished primarily by a gradual but progressive shift
over the last 100 years from discharge of raw sewage, to discharge of primary
treated sewage, to discharge of advanced primary and secondary treated
sewage (Figure 2-3~; by a gradual phaseout of pipeline discharge of sludge;
and, most important, by source control. In 1985, 62.4 percent of the total
sewage from the seven major dischargers received primary treatment, 37.2
OCR for page 18
18
o
CO
o
: _
_
o,
.
C
_ ~
.O
CD
o~ _ ~' CO
~ _ CID C
l o
_
- C)
cn
o
a
. · ·.
,./
~/
C)
N _ ~
_)
, ~
o
CC
1 1 1 o . °
~ ~) ~ a' .
~ , ~I~ ;i
"C >, | ~i
0 E c:
>; m O
(D ~c
~ c
ca
cn
cs
G)
-
cn a)
0 O:
0
.~> .c ,t,.
O ~ . '~.
~ ..e''
cn j~ z
C4D~\ ~
~ o7 I
ttS ~ ., ~)t~
.i r
Ct
Ct
m
c'
c
ct
~n
(':=
c
^_ ~
~.=
c
co
-
D
m
cn
co
~ 0
E, z
c
ct
cn
o
_ _
1 1 1 1 1 1
o
_ O
oo
_ _
c,
G)
c
ct
~ _
°a)
."
m
C5
._
e
-
:e
C)
S
O
U.
N S
o
·_
Ct
O
CM (
o
C~
C~
L~
OCR for page 19
19
1 ,400
1 ,200
3: 1,000
o
800
600
400
200
o
1880 1 DOO 1920 1940 1960 1980
-
I/
-
YEAR
FIGURE 2-2 Municipal wastewater flow (millions of gallons per day) for the years 1890
to 1990 through sewage treatment facilities in Southern California that discharge treated
wastewater to the Southern California Bight. SOURCE: Summers et al., 1987.
1 ,000
800
' 600
C]
400
200
,~
,- _
At _./ _
its
/._~,
_~ ~
O C
1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980
FIGURE 2-3 Annual municipal wastewater flow to the ocean (millions of gallons per day)
by treatment level in Los Angeles County, California (raw,-; primary, - - -; secondary,
-.-.-.~. SOURCE: Summers et al., 1987.
percent received secondary treatment, and 0.4 percent was anaerobically
digested sewage sludge, discharged from the Hyperion Treatment Plant.
The Hyperion Treatment Plant operated by the city of Los Angeles
discharged sludge from 1957 through 1987 via an ocean outfall in 318 ft of
OCR for page 20
20
water at the head of the Santa Monica submarine canyon in Santa Monica
Bay. The County Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles discharges the liquid
phase produced by dewatering sludge by centrifugation. Prior to 1983,
this waste water contained high concentrations of solids (sludge). In 1983,
new centrifuges with improved solids recovery (90 to 95 percent) came on
line, resulting in a significant reduction in solids emissions. The Sanitation
Districts of Orange County ceased discharging sludge to the ocean in 1984.
The city of San Diego's Point Loma Treatment Plant discharged sludge to
the ocean only during emergencies, when a pipeline to the Mission Bay
drying beds was inoperative.
Most sewage sludge is now disposed of onshore. However, the shift
from primary to secondary treatment results in a substantial increase (ap-
proximately double) in the volume of sludge generated. Although it has
been suggested that various ocean disposal options may be reconsidered
for handling increasing volumes of sludge (Conrad, 1985), ocean dumping
is no longer an option. Other possible uses of sludge are comporting, use
in industrial processes, and landfill cover.
Because the Southern California Bight region is semiarid, design re-
quirements for storm water and sanitary sewer-handling systems are quite
different. As a consequence, storm drainage and sanitary sewer systems
have been separate throughout the history of the region, unlike nearly all
other major U.S. coastal urban areas. Surface runoff from land enters the
bight through 150 natural streams (Figure 1-2) and 18 hydrologic units. In
addition, there are several major channels in Los Angeles, Orange, and San
Diego counties for stormwater runoff. In the Los Angeles County Flood
Control District alone, there are 2,000 mi of underground drains, 500 mi
of open channels, and 50,000 catch basins. Most of the surface water flow
of 405 million gal/day (peak value) enters the bight from 20 major streams
and channels, mostly in pulse inputs during winter storms. There are, in
addition, hundreds of individual storm drains that discharge directly to the
ocean.
Harbors and marinas are sources of local and, in some cases, regional
contaminant inputs to the bight. For instance, a 1973 study (SCCWRP,
1973) indicated that 80,000 gal of antifouling paints containing 180 tons of
copper were applied annually to many of the 35,000 recreational boats and
numerous commercial and naval vessels that use these facilities. Most of
this copper eventually dissolved into the water. In recent years, organotin
compounds have largely replaced copper in antifouling paints, creating an
even greater problem because of their high toxicity to marine animals. San
Diego Bay and Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors are contaminated
with organotins, with measured concentrations in the water column in the
range of 0.02 to 0.93 mg/liter, and concentrations in sediments at least
a hundredfold higher (Grovhoug et al., 1986~. Many power boats and
OCR for page 21
21
TABLE 2-2 Estimated Annual Inputs ~Ietuc Tons/Year) of Trace Metals to the Southem
Califomia Bight
Municipal, Dry Stonn runoff Thermal
waste water fallout 1971- 1972- discharge
Metal 1976 1975 1972 1973 1977
Cadmimn (Cd) 45 0.84 1.2 2.8 0.3
Chromium (Cr) 593 6.6 25 60 0.6
Copper (Cu) 507 31 18 42 2.1
Lead (Pb) 190 240 90 210 0.8
MercuIy (Hg) 2.6 --- --- 043 ~~
Nickel (Ni) 307 12 17 41 0.7
Silver (Ag) 20 0.06 1.1 2.6 -
Zinc (oh) 1,060 150 101 240 1.8
·Before initiation of industrial wastewater source control.
SOURCE: Young et al., 1973, 1978.
submerged metal structures are equipped with sacrificial anodes designed
to help prevent corrosion of submerged metal structures. These anodes
leach aluminum, copper, and zinc.
Along the coast of the bight, there are 14 steam electricity generating
stations that use sea water for once-through cooling. Total cooling-water
flow from the plants is about 10.7 billion gaVday. The San Onofre Nu-
clear Generating Station (SONGS) alone has a base flow of about 2.4
billion gaVday. These flows introduce heat and small amounts of coincides
(chlorine), radionuclides, and metals Gable 2-2) into the bight ecosystem.
In addition, cooling-water intakes entrain large numbers of fish larvae
and plankton and impinge adult fish and other marine organisms. Dur-
ing the special 316b study period from October 1978 through September
1980, Southern California Edison Company's eight coastal power plants
impinged an average of 2.2 million fish per year, at an average total weight
of 215,000 lbs (Herbinson, 1981~. Fish impingement since this study period
has averaged approximately half this amount. This is because surf perches,
which made up a large percentage of fish impinged during the study pe-
riod, decreased drastically in abundance during the El Nino periods of the
1980s and have only recently begun to reappear (K P. Herbinson, Southern
California Edison, Co., personal communication).
Other sources of contaminant inputs to the bight include more than 60
discharges permitted under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System (NPDES), from coastal industrial operations, more than 25 permit-
ted discharges of produced water from offshore oil and gas platforms, spills,
atmospheric fallout, and permitted ocean dumping of dredged material and
drilling muds. The volumes of permitted discharges from coastal industries
and offshore oil production platforms are small compared to wastewater
OCR for page 22
22
discharges from municipal treatment plants. The Chevron refinery at E1
Segundo discharges about 6.5 million gaVday of treated brine and process
water to Santa Monica Bay. Offshore oil or gas production platforms may
(if permitted by NPDES) discharge up to about 0.25 million gal/day of
produced water.
Inputs of various waste waters are not evenly distributed along the
coast. Most of the inputs are located between Point Dume and San Mateo
Point. They include approximately 82 percent of municipal wastewater
effluents, 95 percent of discrete industrial wastewater discharges, 70 percent
of power plant cooling water returns, and 71 percent of surface-water runoff.
Oil and gas production and associated discharges occur in state and federal
waters between Point Conception and Huntington Beach. Thus, there are
large areas of the bight north and south of Los Angeles where discharges
of waste waters to the bight are minimal.
CLASSES OF CONTAMINANTS
Oil Exploration and Production Wastes and Petroleum
Natural seeps along the coasts of Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los An-
geles, and Orange counties intermittently or continuously discharge large
quantities of oil and tar to nearshore waters of the bight. Fischer (1978)
estimated that as few as 2,000 and as many as 30,000 metric tons (10 million
gal) of oil enter the Santa Barbara Channel each year from natural seeps,
the best known at Coal Oil Point. (By comparison, the 1989 Exxon Valdez
oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, leaked 11 million gal of oil into
marine waters.) The intertidal zone at Goleta is chronically contaminated
with oil and tar from this seep. One hundred years ago, the U.S. Fish
Commission steamer Albatross dispatched an observer to report on a huge
fish kill extending from Santa Barbara to San Diego. He counted thousands
of pelagic and demersal fish on the Santa Monica Bay beach at Redondo,
many of them smelling of petroleum, and suggested that the event was
caused by seepage from offshore "oil springs."
The first offshore oil well in the world was drilled in 1898 from a
wooden pier extending into the surf zone near Summerland, California. By
the mid-1980s, more than 25,000 oil and gas wells had been drilled in U.S.
coastal and outer continental shelf waters. In Southern California, a large
number of oil and gas fields has been discovered along the coast, both
in state waters and in federal lease tracts between Point Conception and
Huntington Beach (Figure 2-4~. Additional fields are now being developed
in federal waters north of the bight between Point Conception and San Luis
Obispo. As of July 31, 1987, a total of 318 exploratory and 633 development
OCR for page 23
23
121. 4 5 30
35.
45
30
15'
34.
15 120.
45 30 119~15
1 1 [. 1 1 1 1 1 1 _ 35.
3-Geographical'| ~ e ·Santa Maria 45, :20 '5. '18.
Mlle Llne ( l San Luls ~38
'& ~ ~,Obispo \,,39 0' 10 M'
~ ~ ~7; California (~each
- ( lo'" ' ~-fit.
) ~ · Lompoc Hunting ton`:,,>~
3~/ ~
4. .( (,` ~| ~ Hydrocarbon Field |
i-~- Ga iota 22 | ,0, 6 .~? lo' I
7~ ~~?` Santa Barbara
- _ ~terla
2 9 =:i:u r a
_ 34 \\3 5\,
Pacific Ocean ~ 3~
121 45' 30' 1S 120 45 30 119-15
33~45
45
30
15
34.
FIGURE 2-4 Major offshore oil and gas fields in state and federal waters of the Southern
California Bight. Names of fields are 1, San Miguel; 2, Point Sal; 3, Point Pedernales;
4, unnamed 0443; 5, Bonito; 6, Electra; 7, Point Arguello; 8, Rocly Point; 9, Jalama;
10, Sword; 11, Government Point; 12, 13, Conception Offshore; 14, Sacate; 15, Pescado;
16, Cuarta Offshore; 17, Alegna Offshore; 18, Hondo; 19, Caliente Offshore; 20, Gaviota
Odshore; 21, Moleno Offshore; 22, Capitan; 23, Naples Offshore; 24, Ellwood; 25, South
Elwood Offshore; 26, 27, Coal Oil Point; 28, Santa Rosa; 29, Dos Cuadras; 30, Summerland
Offshore; 31, Pitas Point; 32, Carpinteria; 33, Rincon Onshore; 34, Santa Clara; 35, West
Montalvo; 36, Sockeye; 37, Hueneme; 38, Venice Beach; 39, Playa del Rey; 40, Torrance;
41, Wilmington; 42, Belmont Onshore; 43, Huntington Beach Offshore; 44, Beta Northwest;
45, Beta; 46, West Newport Onshore. SOURCE: hIMS, 1987.
wells had been drilled in federal lease tracts off Southern California, most
of them in the bight (Minerals Management Service [MMS], 1987~.
As early as the 1920s, state fish and game wardens were frequently
citing oil operations for beach spills and fish and shellfish kills. By the
1930s, these officers began reporting cooperation, cleanup, and adoption
of preventive measures by the offshore oil industry to avoid oil spills.
However, in large part because of the highly visible Santa Barbara Channel
oil blowout of 1969, many people in Southern California consider offshore
oil exploration and production to be a highly hazardous and polluting
activity. In U.S. waters, spill records from offshore platforms show that of
5 billion barrels of oil produced on 41 million acres of offshore tracts leased
in federal waters since 1954, 61,000 barrels were spilled (MMS, 1987), less
than 0.001 percent of production.
During the 1950s and 1960s, marine life barely existed in the inner
OCR for page 24
24
Long Beach and Los Angeles harbors, due mainly to oxygen depletion
resulting from the discharge of refinery waste waters directly into the inner
harbors (Soule and Ogun, 1979; Reish et al., 1980~. By the late 1960s, these
inputs were reduced and partly diverted to the Los Angeles County sewage
treatment plant at Carson, from which they were discharged with treated
sewage off Palos Verdes. The harbors recovered, but their sediments
remain heavily contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons, metals, and
other contaminants.
Today, many sources of petroleum hydrocarbon inputs to the ocean
are recognized (National Research Council [NRC], 1985), and discharge of
treated sewage may be a major source of aromatic and aliphatic hydrocar-
bons in coastal waters. Eganhouse and Kaplan (1982) estimated that the
five largest municipal wastewater treatment plants in Southern California
discharge a combined total of 17,400 metric tons per year of petroleum
hydrocarbons to the Southern California Bight.
Dunn and Young (1976) measured elevated concentrations of the car-
cinogenic aromatic hydrocarbon, benzo~a~pyrene, in the mussel Mytilus
edulis in Southern California. Me highest concentrations occurred in mus-
sels collected at harbor entrances. More recently, Anderson and Gossett
(1986) confirmed that some Southern California harbor sediments and biota
contain elevated concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Re-
sults of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA)
Mussel Watch Program reveal three locations in the bight where mussels
contain elevated concentrations of total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons:
San Diego Bay, Los Angeles Harbor, and Marina del Rey (Boehm et al.,
19~. These high-molecular-weight aromatic hydrocarbons are derived
from creosoted pilings, industrial (especially refinery) effluents, domestic
sewage, oil spills, aerial fallout, and bilge water from ships, particularly
crude oil tankers.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to construct a complete mass balance
and describe long-term trends for all sources of inputs of petroleum hy-
drocarbons to the bight. However, inputs of petroleum hydrocarbons in
treated sewage are known to have declined as the "oil and grease" fraction
of the sewage declined during the last 15 years due to improved removal
methods and implementation of source control and pretreatment programs.
For the major treatment plants monitored by SCCWRP (1986a), oil and
grease discharges decreased by approximately one-half, from 63,000 metric
tons per year in 1971 to 34,300 metric tons per year in 1985.
Concentrations of total oil and grease in runoff from land and stormwa-
ter flows can be quite high. Gossett et al. (1985) estimated that the mass
emission of oil and grease from the Los Angeles River was 28,600 metric
tons in 1985. Some of this undoubtedly is derived from treated waste water
discharged to the river by sewage treatment plants upstream.
OCR for page 25
25
Produced water containing up to 59 mg/liter total oil may be discharged
to the ocean. If there were 25 platforms in the Southern California Bight,
each discharging 0.25 million gal/day of produced water containing 50
mg/liter total oil, the amount of petroleum discharged each year from this
source would amount to 450 metric tons, which is significantly less than
the amount discharged from municipal wastewater outfalls in the bight.
Refinery discharges have not been quantified but probably contribute a
similar amount.
Radionuclides
During the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s, atmospheric testing of
nuclear weapons by the United States, France, and the Soviet Union
in the tropical Pacific, the southwest United States, and elsewhere led to
the release of large amounts of radioisotopes into the atmosphere and to
significant fallout of radionuclides throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
There was considerable concern in California about contamination of lee he
vegetable crops. Young and Folsom (1973) reported that in 1967 mussels
and barnacles were contaminated with radio-manganese, cobalt, and zinc
in a gradient extending from shore to far out to sea. By 1971, these
radionuclides were no longer detectable in mussel tissues. Concentrations
of plutonium and americium in mussels from the bight are not elevated
above normal background values (Goldberg et al., 1978b). I\vo ocean
dump sites designated in the bight for the disposal of radioactive wastes
were used between 1947 and 1968. There is continued public concern
about possible emissions of radionuclides to the bight from SONGS at San
Clemente, and in treated sewage effluents. All discharges to the air and
water from SONGS are monitored for radioactivity (Southern California
Edison Company, 1987; see also Chapter 4~. Sea water from the cooling-
water outfall region contained natural background levels of potassium-40,
but no radionuclides derived from the station. Ultratrace concentrations
of cobalt-58, cobalt-60, silver-110, and cesium-137 derived from the station
were detected in fish and invertebrates around the outfalls. Monitoring data
from 1979 to 1985 revealed that concentrations of these radionuclides were
not increasing over time in the animal tissues. The highest concentrations
observed were only 1.8 percent of the levels that must be reported to the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Bacteria and Pathogens
Raw sewage was discharged directly into the Southern California Bight
beginning before the turn of the century. However, it was not until the
1940s that public concern about the human health risks from pathogens
OCR for page 26
26
associated with this discharge led to closure of beaches along Santa Monica
Bay and in Orange County. During the late 1950s, these beaches were
reopened to swimming as treatment practices improved and wastewater
outfalls were diverted to deeper locations. Daily monitoring of bacteria
has revealed that coliform counts at beach stations in Santa Monica Bay
declined by several orders of magnitude between 1945 and 1964, and have
since fluctuated around this lower level (Figure 2-5~.
In spite of improvements elsewhere in the bight, significant bacterial
contamination of swimming beaches persists south of San Diego. This is
due to the discharge of raw sewage from Tijuana, Mexico, directly into the
surf zone just south of the U.S.-Mexican border or into the Tijuana River,
which empties into the bight just north of the border (Hickey, 1986~. As a
result, Border Field State Park and beaches as far north as Imperial Beach
remain under quarantine. This problem persists despite the diversion
of up to 13 million gal/day of sewage from Tijuana to the San Diego
metropolitan sewer system, which occurred until 1986, when the Tijuana
treatment facility came on line. San Diego now only treats emergencies
(averaging less than 1 million gaVday). The total sewage how for T]uana
has been estimated by the U.S. EPA and the International Boundary and
Water Commission at between 32 and 38 million gaVday.~day, regulatory
limits for conforms in recreational waters are occasionally exceeded at some
beaches following pump failures or overflows at treatment plants or flows
into the stormwater drainage system due to infrequent heavy precipitation.
Discharge of toilet wastes from recrea-tional vessels can be a major source
of bacterial contamination in Newport Harbor and other marinas (Santa
Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, 1985~. While regulatory limits
have not been established for enteroviruses and other viral pathogens, the
presence of such viruses in wastewater effluent and in sea water has been
established (Morris et al., 1976~.
Concern about pathogens in coastal waters of the bight has historically
focused on beaches and the adjacent surf zone. However, increased use
of offshore kelp beds by recreational and commercial divers prompted
the State Water Resources Control Board to amend the California Ocean
Plan to extend monitoring of surface waters for bacterial contamination to
offshore kelp beds.
Thermal Discharges
The 14 coastal power plants along the U.S. and Mexican shore of
the Southern California Bight generate a tremendous amount of excess
heat annually. In 1972 coastal power plants generated an estimated 2 x
107 kw of excess heat (SCCWRP, 1973), and that amount is substantially
higher at present. Much of this heat is discharged to the coastal zone
OCR for page 31
31
are quite rare and wastewater discharges are continuous, it appears that
factors other than these discharges play a more important role in causing
blooms.
Dairy wastes, irrigation tailwaters, and urban lawn fertilizers in runoff
can contribute to eutrophication in coastal estuaries and lagoons. High
concentrations of nitrate in runoff water have been implicated in blooms of
nuisance algae in Newport Bay (Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control
Board, 1987).
Mace Metals
There have been several attempts to estimate the fluxes of metals to
the Southern California Bight from different sources. In studies performed
in the 1970s, municipal waste water was found to be the major source of
several metals Cable 2-2). In contrast, most of the lead entering the bight
came from dry fallout from the atmosphere and stormwater runoff from
land, derived primarily from combustion of leaded gasoline in automobiles.
Garber (1987) found that from 1967 through 1982 the amounts of lead
and mercury entering Santa Monica Bay in stormwater runoff were 40
and 52 percent, respectively, of the amounts entering the bay in municipal
wastewater discharges. Garber also confirmed earlier conclusions that
wastewater discharges were the major source of all other metals entering
the bay. Dry or wet deposition of metal from brushfire smoke may be an
additional source of metals in coastal waters (Young and Jan, 1977).
In the past 15 years, municipal sewage treatment plants have under-
taken source control programs, enforced stringent pretreatment programs,
and adopted procedures (including secondary treatment) that reduce the
particulate emissions with which most metals are associated. As a result,
the concentrations and mass emission rates of most metals have decreased
dramatically in recent years (Figure 2-6). Mass emissions of several metals
in sewage have decreased five- to sixfold between 1971 and 1985 (SCCWRP,
1986a). One exception is silver, for which the mass emission rate has in-
creased from 17.7 metric tons in 1971 to 27 metric tons in 1985 (SCCWRP,
mesa).
The history of metal inputs to the bight from all sources is neatly
recorded in layered sediments in its basins. They reveal that inputs in-
creased annually through the late 1960s, then began decreasing, probably
due to decreases in mass emissions of metals in sewage (Bruland et al.,
1974~.
Synthetic Organic Chemicals
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and the pesticide DDT have been
OCR for page 32
32
TABLE 2-3 Estimated Anr~ual Emissions (Kilograms/Year) of Selected Chlorinated
Hydrocarbons to the Southern Califomia Bight from Different Sources
Source
Year Total DDTDieldnnTotal PCBs
Municipal waste waters 1972 6,490100- 19,460
1973 3,920< 2803,410
1974 1,580955,290
197S 1,270---3,080
1 976 940---2,8 10
1977 770---1,560
Harbor/industrial 1973-74 4010~ 100
Antifouling paint 1973 < 1---< 1
Surface runoff 1971-72 10020190-280
1972-73 32065250-830
Aerial falloutb 1973-74 1,400---1,100
Ocean currents 1973 ~ 7,000---< 4,000
aValues are lower than those in SCCWRP (1986) because fewer treatment
plants were considered.
Includes only the inner, nearshore zone of the bight (400 x 50 km).
SOURCE: Young and Heesen, 1978; Young et al., 1981.
monitored extensively in the bight ecosystem since the early 1970s. At that
time, municipal waste water was the principal source of these contaminants
(Table 2-3), with additional inputs from aerial fallout and surface runoff
from land (Young et al., 1976~. Garber (1987) reported that between 1967
and 1982, stormwater runoff contributed 7 percent of the total identifiable
chlorinated hydrocarbons contributed by municipal waste water to Santa
Monica Bay. The DDT came from a local manufacturer, which discharged
its wastes into the Los Angeles County sewer system from 1947 to 1971
(Chartrand et al., 1985), and other pesticides and PCBs came from a variety
of sources. Analysis of dated sediment cores from the Santa Barbara Basin
revealed that deposition (and therefore discharge) of PCBs to the bight
began about 1945 and deposition of DDT began about 1952 (Hoary et al.,
19744.
Gradients of DDT and its breakdown products in coastal mussels and
sediments clearly point to the Los Angeles County outfalls as the major
source of DDT (Figure 2-7~. Body burdens of DDT in commercial fish
also are highest off the Los Angeles metropolitan area and decline steadily
from Southern California to Alaska, with slight elevations in fish from
San Francisco Bay and Puget Sound (Matins et al., 1987; McCain et al.,
1988~. Among west coast mussels sampled in the NOAA National Status
and Trends Program, those from the Los Angeles area had the highest
body burdens of DDT (Matte et al., 1985; Boehm et al., 1988~. In 1987,
mussels from San Diego Bay contained the highest mean concentrations
of PCBs along the west coast (2.1 ppm). Mussels from the Los Angeles
OCR for page 33
33
area contained a mean of 0.72 ppm PCBs (13oehm et al., 1988). Mussels
in the San Diego area have contained elevated concentrations of PCBs
since at least 1976 (Barrington, 1983~. The source of this contamination is
uncertain.
In the 1970s, manufacture and u~ of DDT and PCBs in the United
States were banned by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and
since that time emissions of these highly toxic contaminants to the U.S.
environment have declined dramatically. With cessation of discharges of
DDT to the Los Angeles County sewage treatment plant in 1971, emis-
sions of DDT from the seven largest municipal wastewater plants dropped
dramatically, from 21.7 metric tons in 1971 to 6.6 metric tons in 1972
(SCCWRP, 1986a). Emissions of DDT continued to drop each year and
were about 58 kg in 1985. Discharges of PCBs reached a peak of 9.8 metric
tons in 1972 and have declined gradually to 0.82 metric tons in 1985. This
decline is reflected in the sediments of the anoxic Santa Barbara Basin
(Hoary et al., 1974~.
By 1970, the California brown pelican had been driven almost to ex-
tinction in U.S. waters from eating DDT- and PCB-contaminated anchovies
(Chartrand et al., 1985~. Although still on the endangered species list, the
bird has made a significant comeback in the 16 years since DDT was banned
(Schreiber, 1980~.
Much less attention has been paid to fluxes of other synthetic organic
chemicals. There is evidence that several other pesticides are important
contaminants in municipal waste and storm waters. The state mussel
watch program has identified several hot spots of dieldrin, chlordane,
and toxaphene in shallow coastal waters and bays. The pesticides aldrin,
heptachlor, and heptachlor epoxide were found in tissues of mussels from
coastal regions of northern Baja California (Gutierrez-Galindo et al., 1983),
but not in mussels collected by the California Mussel Watch Program along
the U.S. coast of the bight (Ladd et al., 1984~. A possible source of these
pesticides is the Tijuana raw sewage discharge at San Antonio de Los
Buenos Creek.
Priority pollutant scans of sewage of the effluent in the monitoring
programs of the major municipal dischargers have revealed a wide variety
of chlorinated solvents and other synthetic organic chemicals. No attempts
have been made to date to estimate the fluxes of these chemicals to the
bight from different sources.
Ocean Dumping
Fourteen ocean dump sites designated for disposal of a wide variety
of waste materials operated for various lengths of time between 1931 and
1973 in the Southern California Bight (Figure 2-8; Chartrand et al., 1985~.
OCR for page 34
34
~e ·~ ~
20,000
1 0,000
300,000
200,000
1 00,000
o
1 ,000
E
100
10
1.0
1,000
100
10
100
10
1.0
0.1
0.01
10
1.0
0.1
0.01
0.001
Am. ' I:..
~_! ^
me.
~
: .~.
~:
BOO
COD
- ~
At
~COPPER
}4 I A
v- W _~L
- ~ ~
A Zl NC
~ Ram ,
~ TOTAL DOT
~ h
~-
'~_TOTAL PCB
FIGURE 2-7 Variations in concentrations of six materials in surficial sediments from 77
stations along the 60-m isobath during spring and summer, 1978. The large peak is centered
around the Palos Verdes discharge. Secondary peaks for some parameters are centered
around the other major discharges. The major source of DDT is the Palos Verdes outfalls.
SOURCE: Word and Mearns, 1979.
OCR for page 35
35
Between 1947 and 1961, the California Salvage Company dumped a variety
of liquid industrial wastes, including approximately 2,000 to 3,000 gaVday
of an acid sludge containing DDT from Montrose Chemical Company, at
Dump Site No. 1 located about 10 nautical miles north of Santa Catalina
Island. In 1961, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board
began regulating ocean dumping off Los Angeles County and legal ocean
dumping of DDT ceased. All legal ocean dumping at this site ceased in
1973. Chartrand et al. (1985) cite instances of illegal dumping of DDT-
contaminated wastes off Palos Verdes in the 1970s.
Since 1977, four open-ocean locations have been designated by the
EPA for use by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) as interim
disposal sites for dredged materials (P. Cotton, U.S. EPA Region IX,
personal communication; 40 CF~ 228 12A). Dump site LA-1 is off Port
Hueneme, LA-2 is off Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors, LA-3 is off
Newport Beach, and LA-5 is off Point Loma. Approximately 2 and 3 million
yd3 of dredged material from Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors and
San Diego Harbor have been dumped at the LA-2 and LA-5 dump sites,
respectively. This dredged material probably was contaminated with a wide
variety of chemicals, but no monitoring is being performed to determine if
chemicals are being leached from it.
EPA recently designated an ocean disposal site for oil well drilling
muds and drill cuttings. The site is about 16 nautical miles from Long
Beach Harbor and is near the center of the San Pedro Basin. It has been
used by the THUMS Long Beach Company for disposal of drilling muds
and cuttings generated during drilling from four islands in Long Beach
Harbor.
OVERVIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
Contaminant input, resource exploitation, and habitat modifications
due to construction and other economic activity have led to a suite of
environmental problems in the Southern California Bight. Some of them
are regionwide, while others are relatively localized. It is beyond the scope
of this case study to present a detailed review of all environmental problems,
however, awareness of their diversity is important to understanding the
monitoring programs described and analyzed in Chapters 4 through 6. The
following sections therefore present a brief listing of major environmental
problems in the bight, and describe two of them in more detail: DDT
contamination and the transport of sewage contamination from Mexico
into U.S. waters.
OCR for page 36
36
1
Refinery and 1
chemical wastes 2
3
4
34o
32°
Boo
1 JO 1 1 1 1 1
1:.
~i.2 - SAN LUIS OBISPO _
1 947-73
1 96~71
1 946-71
1 947-71
7 1960 67
8 1 969-70
Oil well drilling
wastes 2
Refuse and garbage 4
5
9
13
Radioactive wastes 10
14
Military explosives 6
11
12
1 931 -71
1 94~70
1 947~68
1 931 -72
1 946 68
1 946~68
1 94~70
1 94~70
1 94~70
1 1 1
0 50 1 00
STATUTE MILES
\
1966 70 \ 10
\
\
\
\ 12. 'my
13
\
\
\
\
s
\
7
1 1 1 1 1 . 1 1
1
id, ~: POINT CONCEPTION
Iat: :~.:.J.- -
I~ SAN BUENAVENTURA
\ ~ <;~,
~ SANTA MONICA
it.
~NEWPORT BEACH
·11 · \.~
1'
6 1'
\.: , SAN DIEGO
· ~MEXICO
9 te
\
\;. . ~ ENSENADA
all:-'
J. .
t:
\..
W
\ CABO
COLNETT
1:
I-:~ SAN
At- QUINTIN
~-
~_
V _
1 1:-.
116°
1 24°
1 22°
1 20°
118°
FIGURE 2-8 Ocean dump sites designated and used between 1947 and 1973. The THUMS
dump site is near position 2. SOURCE: Chartrand et al., 1985.
Bightwide Environmental Issues
Many environmental problems from both human activity and natural
processes in the bight extend throughout the entire bight or are extensive
enough that they cross regulatory and legal boundaries. They include:
· impacts on fish and shellfish populations from commercial and
sport fishing;
· impacts on fish populations from entrainment of larvae and im-
pingement of adults by coastal power plants;
· large changes in fish populations (e.g., sardines) resulting from in-
completely understood interactions between natural environmental changes
and fishing activity;
· impacts on individual fish species from loss of nursery habitat due
to construction and dredging;
· large changes in the areal extent of kelp beds resulting from natural
environmental changes and contamination;
OCR for page 37
37
· regional changes in plankton populations due to nutrient enrich-
ment by waste water;
· regional contamination of sediments and biota resulting from toxics
in waste water, storm drain, and nonpoint source inflows;
· regional contamination of water resulting from pathogens in waste
water, storm drain, and nonpoint source inflows; and
~ cumulative effects that derive from the combination of regional and
local impacts on specific resources.
DDT Contamination
One regional problem has attracted international attention. In 1967,
high concentrations of DDT were reported in fish from California coastal
waters (Risebrough et al., 1967~. By 1970, it was known that the Montrose
Chemical Company was disposing of large amounts of DDT via the Los
Angeles County ocean sewage outfalls off Palos Verdes and by ocean
dumping. During the next decade, numerous surveys documented the
occurrence of the pesticide throughout the bight, south to Baja California,
and far up coast to the north in many species of marine animals, including
sea birds, seals, sea lions, and porpoises. Retrospective analyses of museum
fish and dated sediment samples revealed that regionwide contamination
began as early as 1950 (Chartrand et al., 1985~. Until it was banned in
the United States in the early 1970s, large amounts of DDT were used
for agricultural and insect control. Some of the DDT reached the bight in
aerial fallout, runoff from land, and municipal sewage (Young et al., 1976~.
DDT continues to be used in Baja California and some of it continues
to reach the bight in stormwater runoff. In recent years, large concentra-
tions of DDT in mussels from Newport Bay have been reported (Santa Ana
Regional Water Quality Control Board, 1985~. These increased concentra-
tions may be derived from agricultural soils being plowed or cleared for
subdivision development and contaminating stormwater runoff. During the
last decade, DDT emissions have been reduced a thousandfold (Figure 2-9)
and contamination of intertidal organisms and fishes has declined (Matte et
al., 1986~. The widespread contamination that resulted from the combina-
tion of a large point source and many nonpoint source inputs dramatically
illustrates the potential for localized problems to become regional problems
over time.
U.S.-M0cico Sewage Contamination
The headwaters and mouth of the Tijuana River are in the United
States, although 70 percent of its stream bed and drainage basin lie in
OCR for page 38
38
the Mexican state of Baja California (Figure 2-10~. The river has been
used for disposal of raw sewage since the 1920s, and rapid population
growth in the Tijuana area after World War II led to the quarantine of
Imperial Beach (San Diego County) in 1959. The quarantine was lifted
in 1962 after Tijuana completed its sewage system, but was reimposed in
1965 as the system failed repeatedly. As a stop-gap, an emergency pipeline
was constructed to carry up to 13 million gaVday of sewage to the San
Diego metropolitan system. By 1980, this pipeline was continuously at full
capacity. Because of population pressures on both sides of the border, the
pipeline agreement is currently being renewed on a year-to-year basis.
By the early 1980s, overflows, leakage, and failures at the Playas de
Tijuana Treatment Plant and at other points in the sewer system led to
multiple discharges of raw sewage (Figure 2-lO)(Hickey, 1986), including
the discharge of 1 million gaVday of raw sewage directly to the ocean less
than 1 mile south of the Mexican border. In addition, raw sewage from
some of the approximately 50 percent of Tijuana's population that is not
sewered flows down open channels into the Tijuana River drainage. As a
result, Border Field State Park and beaches as far north as Imperial Beach
have remained under quarantine.
The regional contamination resulting from uncontrolled sewage flows
from Tijuana provides a clear example of how environmental problems can
cross regulatory and legal boundaries. As a result, in 1980 the San Diego
County Department of Health Services, in cooperation with the San Diego
Regional Water Quality Control Board and the U.S. State Department's
International Boundary Commission, an agency formed by the U.S. and
Mexican governments to deal with trans-border issues, implemented a mon-
itoring program to determine the influence of Mexican sewage discharge
on beaches in the border zone.
Local Environmental Problems
Many environmental problems in the bight are local; they are restricted
to an area or time surrounding a specific identifiable disturbance or con-
tamination source. Because they are easier to identify and monitor, these
localized impacts are more completely understood than bightwide impacts.
Localized impacts include:
· changes in benthic infauna around wastewater outfalls;
· changes in the makeup of fish communities around wastewater
outfalls resulting from alterations in their food supply;
· contamination of sediments and biota in the immediate vicinity of
wastewater outfalls;
OCR for page 39
39
0.850
0.756
C)
c,' 0.472
LIZ
z
o
0.283
0.189
A<
_ 1 1 1 ..~
,~
oooo L
1920 1930 1940 1950
_~"
1960 1970 1980
YEAR
100
in
z
He
o
80
60
40
20
0.380
0.285
cn
LLJ
A 0.190
An
o
;
~ J
! ~
, ·.j
o
1920 1930 1940 1950
YEAR
.
i,\\
A ~
i.
1960 1970 1980
-~-~.
.-. I ~
0.095 _
0.000 1 14
1920
'v''~''\.~
,1m
[.~: -,
\~-
~.
· ~
-
1930 1940 1950
YEAR
1960 1970 1980
FIGURE 2-9 Total ~ ), nonpoint (-.-), and point source (...) estimated yearly input of
DDT to the Southern California Bight from (a) Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, (b)
Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties, and (c) San Diego County.
SOURCE: Summers et al., 1987.
OCR for page 40
40
IMPERIAL BEACH
Stewart's Drain
Canyon de Sol \ I
Smugglers Gulch \ ~ |
Tijuana River
~\~
\ Goat Canyon Silva's Drain )
~ Playas de Tijuana
PACIFIC OCEAN \
EXISTING SEWER
\ SYSTEM DISCHARGE
-
FIGURE 2-10 Locations where raw or partially treated sewage enters U.S. territory from
Baja California, Mexico. SOURCE: Hickey, 1986.
· potential effects on kelp beds from the White Point and Point
Loma wastewater outfalls and SONGS;
· effects on fish communities from heated power plant effluent;
contamination of nearshore water in the immediate vicinity of storm
drains;
and
· impacts on benthic communities from disposal of dredged material;
· impacts on plankton populations resulting from SONGS' effects on
nearshore circulation patterns.
SUMMARY
The sources of pollution in the Southern California Bight are quite
varied and typical of those found in any highly urbanized coastal area of
the United States, except that there are no major riverine inputs. Some
of these sources are among the largest (sewage treatment plants) or most
extensive (oil production) of their type found anywhere. The range of
OCR for page 41
41
contaminants discharged is broad, and in some cases the volumes have
been among the largest found in the country (for example, the historic
DDT discharges through the Los Angeles County sewage treatment plant).
In recent years, as a result of control strategies or changed production
practices, the amounts of many contaminants discharged have declined
dramatically. These reductions have resulted in decreased concentrations
in the marine environment.
This great variety in sources and types of pollutants poses a formidable
challenge~for society as it seeks to impose appropriate controls on discharges
to the marine environment. The statutory and regulatory system responsible
for achieving these reductions is discussed in Chapter 3. In addition, the
complexity of sources and pollutants has resulted in a set of intensive
monitoring programs in the Southern California Bight, which are discussed
in detail in Chapter 4.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
california bight
