Crazy things "we" did to the planet in the past

[masraum]

It's amazing what "we" thought was OK back in the day. I guess this isn't much different than the old thing that we've all seen that says that you can dig a hole and fill it with gravel so you can just dump your used motor oil into a hole in the ground. (of course, oil was much simpler back then, and not, I think, much different from how it was when it got pumped out of the ground, so maybe that was different)

Metal Barrels Dumped Off the Coast of Los Angeles Are Encircled by Mysterious White Halos—and Scientists Think They Finally Know Why
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/metal-barrels-dumped-off-the-coast-of-los-angeles-are-encircled-by-mysterious-while-halos-and-scientists-think-they-finally-know-why-180987334/

At least some of the barrels contain caustic alkaline waste, which has made the surrounding ecosystems inhospitable to most life forms, a new study suggests

I'm not sure if this image will work due to the complexity of the link

In 2011, scientists made a shocking discovery off the coast of Los Angeles: Corroded metal barrels were resting on the seafloor, including some that were surrounded by eerie white halos in the nearby sediment. They suspected the barrels contained DDT, because the underwater area around them was heavily contaminated with the now-banned toxic pesticide, but they didn’t know for certain.

Now, researchers say they are one step closer to solving the mystery of the barrels’ contents. Recent testing suggests that at least some of the barrels may not contain DDT as previously thought but, rather, some sort of caustic alkaline waste, according to a new study published September 9 in the journal PNAS Nexus.
Need to know: Barrels of waste on the seafloor

When the metal barrels were initially discovered, scientists counted dozens of them. Now, researchers have mapped about 25,000.

The barrels’ exact origins are murky. However, federal records from the Environmental Protection Agency show that from the 1930s to the early 1970s, government agencies allowed companies to dump various types of waste at 14 underwater sites off the coast of Southern California. For those four decades, manufacturers got rid of their refinery waste, filter cakes and oil drilling waste, chemical waste, garbage, military explosives and radioactive waste at these dump sites.

David Valentine, a microbial geochemist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, first stumbled upon the barrels more than a decade ago. But his discovery didn’t receive widespread attention until 2020, when Los Angeles Times reporter Rosanna Xia wrote an investigative story about the long-forgotten dumping grounds. Scientists have been studying the barrels ever since.
Robotic arm taking a sediment sample near a barrel
The researchers took sediment samples near the barrels using a remotely operated underwater vehicle. Schmidt Ocean Institute

For the new study, researchers used a remotely operated underwater vehicle to collect samples of sediment at various distances from five of the barrels, including three that had the white halos. When they analyzed the samples from near the barrels, they found high levels of DDT—but intriguingly, the amount of DDT was roughly the same no matter the distance from the barrels.

Samples from around the containers with halos had high pH levels—around 12, which is almost as basic, or alkaline, as household bleach. These samples also contained very few microbes.

Taken together, the results suggest the containers encircled by halos are full of alkaline waste, rather than DDT.

“DDT was not the only thing that was dumped in this part of the ocean, and we have only a very fragmented idea of what else was dumped there,” says lead author Johanna Gutleben, a microbiologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, in a statement. “We only find what we are looking for, and up to this point, we have mostly been looking for DDT. Nobody was thinking about alkaline waste before this, and we may have to start looking for other things as well.”

As it leached out of the barrels, the alkaline waste appears to have altered the surrounding environment to the point that most life forms could no longer survive there. The scientists did, however, find evidence of a few specially adapted species of microbes, similar to the extremophiles found living in deep-sea hydrothermal vents and alkaline hot springs.

“There shouldn’t be these extreme habitats out there in that part of the ocean, and that’s affecting not only the microbes, but the animals and all the way up the food chain, and who knows what else,” says co-author Paul Jensen, a retired marine microbiologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, to the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Maura Fox.

The halos likely formed when the leaking alkaline waste reacted with magnesium in the ocean water. This interaction produced the mineral brucite, which formed a hard crust in the sediment around the barrels. Over time, the brucite is dissolving and producing calcium carbonate, which settles around the barrels as halos.

Scientists were not able to identify the specific alkaline waste substances contained within the barrels. However, they point out that several industrial processes were known to produce alkaline waste, including DDT manufacturing and oil refining, so the barrels might be linked to those.

They also can’t estimate the full extent of the potential alkaline waste contamination. Roughly a third of the barrels identified so far have halos, but they don’t know if that ratio applies to all the barrels on the seafloor. Scientists also don’t know the exact number of barrels, though a previous estimate suggests there are more than 25,000.

“We don’t know how big the problem really is,” Gutleben tells the San Diego Union-Tribune.

One thing seems certain: Given that the barrels were dumped more than 50 years ago and that they’re still having a major impact on the surrounding environment, the chemicals are likely here to stay. They represent a new type of “persistent pollutant” that takes a long time to break down, the researchers write in the paper.

“It could take several thousand years for the effects of caustic alkaline waste dumping in the San Pedro Basin to be resolved,” they add.

Looking ahead, scientists are turning their attention to the broader problem of DDT contamination in the region. Physically removing the contaminated sediment would be nearly impossible and would likely circulate DDT into the surrounding water. Instead, scientists are pinning their hopes on finding microbes that might be able to break down the pollutant.

[oldE]

There are several Volvo sedans on the bottom of Halifax harbor. They were damaged in shipment in the late 60s and were simply pushed overboard.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by oldE

There are several Volvo sedans on the bottom of Halifax harbor. They were damaged in shipment in the late 60s and were simply pushed overboard.

And they were, I'm sure, full of oil, transmission fluid, gear oil, battery acid (likely not much of an issue after major dilution), and likely some gasoline.

I know that we've sunk tanks and ships. Surely even in modern days when we decide to sink a ship for some reason even if the various fluids are emptied, the places where those things were held aren't cleaned.

And car thieves are always sticking cars in bodies of water. I know that I had a buddy back in the day, that before he turned 17 or 18 used to steal mustangs and strip them for parts and/or money. He said that they'd cut up the body and drop it in Tampa bay once they stripped it. At least, I guess, all of the bits full of fluids were stripped and kept or sold.

[stevej37]

Thousand of barrels of dead cows contaminated by PBB buried in Michigan in the 70's.
The barrels only slow down the process.

I was part of the clean-up work at the time.

.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by stevej37

Thousand of barrels of dead cows contaminated by PBB buried in Michigan in the 70's.
The barrels only slow down the process.

I was part of the clean-up work at the time.

.

Wow, crazy. I'd never heard of it, but then I was 2-3 when it happened. I guess the cows couldn't be cremated since they were contaminated with a fire retardent!

Before the 1970s, PBBs were widely used commercially as a flame retardant. Michigan Chemical Corporation (MCC) in St. Louis, Michigan, which was then owned by Velsicol Chemical Corporation, was a major producer of the FireMaster range of PBB-based flame retardants. FireMaster BP-6 (a yellow-brown powder) is a mixture of many different PBB congeners with 2,2',4,4',5,5'-hexabromobiphenyl and 2,2',3,4,4',5,5'-heptabromobiphenyl being significant constituents by mass (60-80% and 12-25%, respectively).[9][10] FireMaster FF-1 (a white powder) is FireMaster BP-6 with the addition of 2% calcium silicate as an anti-caking agent.[10] Mixed bromochlorobiphenyls and polybrominated naphthalenes, as well as lower brominated compounds formed by incomplete bromination, have also been found as minor constituents of FireMaster products.[11]

In summer 1973, several thousand pounds of FireMaster BP-6 were accidentally mixed with livestock feed that was distributed to farms in Michigan because the MCC plant also produced a feed precursor ingredient, magnesium oxide, which was sold to the feed manufacturer.[12] Some 1.5 million chickens, 30,000 cattle, 5,900 pigs, and 1,470 sheep then consumed this feed, became contaminated with PBBs and the carcasses were disposed of in landfill sites throughout the state.[13] In 1976, the Michigan Department of Community Health established a PBB registry to gather and analyze data on exposed residents. It now resides at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University,[14][15] and is maintained by epidemiologist Michele Marcus.[16]

Michigan Farmer magazine staff members Richard Lehnert and Bonnie Pollard broke the news of the contamination. The magazine continued coverage of the issue until the eventual bankruptcy proceedings of the farm cooperative responsible for the accidental contamination and subsequent distribution of the feed.[17] These events were also portrayed in the 1981 documentary Cattlegate by Jeff Jackson, the true-fiction film Bitter Harvest starring Ron Howard, and in the book The Poisoning of Michigan by Joyce Egginton. A 1978 episode of Lou Grant ("Slaughter") portrays a similar, but fictionalized account. One year elapsed before the animals were culled.[12]

This incident is cited amongst a handful of other noxious substances as the driver for President Gerald Ford's reluctant approval in 1976 of the Toxic Substances Control Act, which "remains one of the most controversial regulatory bills ever passed".[18]

[oldE]

And don't forget in the early years of the petroleum industry gasoline was considered a byproduct and was dumped into the streams of Pennsylvania.
The documentary on the chemical waste from the production of teflon is is recent and, I believe ongoing.

[stevej37]

I was part of a 10? man team that went into feed mills and cleaned them up before they were given permission to resume feed manufacturing.
Steam cleaning and dusting every day until an inspector would give the ok. The rafters and beams had to be dust free...it was a challenge.

All because a worker didn't read the label on the bags correctly.

[GH85Carrera]

I often think of the damage to the oceans from WW2. Hundreds of large ships and submarines sunk full of fuel and crew. Mega thousands of gallons of fuel gasoline and oil and explosives.

[Eric Hahl]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

I often think of the damage to the oceans from WW2. Hundreds of large ships and submarines sunk full of fuel and crew. Mega thousands of gallons of fuel gasoline and oil and explosives.

10's or 100's of thousands of gallons of fuel and oil or even millions of gallons in how much water? The sheer volume is staggering. The world's oceans are big place.

[herr_oberst]

George Carlin's perspective:

"The planet is fine...the people are •••••d"

[rwest]

I live near the 3M headquarters and in their early years, like many companies just got rid of waste wherever they could. Now in order to build on any of these pieces of land, the soil has to be decontaminated.

[rcooled]

"Scientists also don’t know the exact number of barrels, though a previous estimate suggests there are more than 25,000."

Back in the 19th century, the Chicago River was an open sewer due to becoming a repository for industrial waste and raw sewage that contaminated the city's drinking water and resulted in numerous outbreaks of cholera and typhoid. The river's flow was actually reversed at one point to keep pollution from flowing into Lake Michigan and entering the city's water supply.
The Chicago River is now much cleaner than in the past, but it's still not safe for drinking.

[sc_rufctr]

[Otter74]

Originally Posted by rcooled

"Scientists also don’t know the exact number of barrels, though a previous estimate suggests there are more than 25,000."

Back in the 19th century, the Chicago River was an open sewer due to becoming a repository for industrial waste and raw sewage that contaminated the city's drinking water and resulted in numerous outbreaks of cholera and typhoid. The river's flow was actually reversed at one point to keep pollution from flowing into Lake Michigan and entering the city's water supply.
The Chicago River is now much cleaner than in the past, but it's still not safe for drinking.

Reversing the flow of the river was one of the two great engineering projects of the 19th century in Chicago:

https://www.wttw.com/chicago-river-tour/how-chicago-reversed-river-animated

The other one was raising the city - over about a decade, more or less the entire city was raised up between about 5 and 15 feet.

The river today is good enough to swim and paddle in. Except for Bubbly Creek in ca. Bridgeport, which has many feet of nasty industrial waste from the 19th century at the bottom of it.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Eric Hahl

10's or 100's of thousands of gallons of fuel and oil or even millions of gallons in how much water? The sheer volume is staggering. The world's oceans are big place.

To this day, the USS Arizona is still leaking every day. And we tried to remove all the oil possible. I wonder how many of the beaches of the islands in the Pacific had oil slicks that nature had to take care of. I remember hearing of a few that washed up in Europe.

[L8Brakr]

First half on my career was with an environmental remediation company. I was the Project Manager for at least a dozen sites cleaned up under CERCLA/RCRA EPA administration. American industry did a lot of nasty scheiss for decades out of pure ignorance and/or a desire to minimize costs.

[javadog]

Ponder all the radioactivity that was in the atmosphere when we were kids, from the above ground nuke testing.

As for chemicals and general trash, abad as we were, it's nothing compared to Asia now. Have a look at India, or China.

Have a look at how much pollution comes from shipping that nobody talks about.

[rcooled]

Originally Posted by javadog

As for chemicals and general trash, as bad as we were, it's nothing compared to Asia now.

[DWBOX2000]

And people still use round up.

[Bill Douglas]

90% of the plastics in the ocean come from two rivers. One in china and the other in India. No surprises really.