Abstract
After researching the main problems of the Southern California Bight (SCB), harmful wastewater levels was found to be the most significant issue. A couple of factors contribute to the high levels of toxic wastewater: uncontrolled population growth, in which 17.5 million people will live in southern California by the year 2010, and high demands and development from the dense population. An integration of both scientific and social aspects explain how power plants in southern California that caused the death of 2.2 million fish per year on average can affect serious human health conditions as well. The biomagnification of DDT in marine life explicitly shows how humans can have a direct affect from high levels of dangerous wastewater. DDT builds up in concentration as the trophic level of the species increase, we end up consuming our very own refuse when we sit down at a table to enjoy a mackerel. I conclude with an offering of opportunities and recommendations for the consciousness of our very own behaviors and impacts we leave behind.
Key words: Southern California Bight, high wastewater levels,
over-population, high development, and sustainability.
Southern California's increase in development results from populations that have doubled from 6 million to 12 million between 1960 and 1980 in Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties. These counties ranked the highest in population growth during the 1970s and 1980s. 5.5 million more people is the projected amount for southern California counties by the year 2010 making the total population close to 20 million people at the turn of the millennium (Dailey 1993). This dense population in southern California is heavily affecting the levels of wastewater that enters the neighboring waters and is endangering life in the Southern California Bight (SCB).
The SCB ranges from Point Conception in Santa Barbara to Cabo Colnett in Baja California with an area of about 100,000 square kilometers (figure 1). The SCB is supplied with a rich and varied marine life ranging from kelp beds to 129 fish families (90% of California's marine fishes) to ocean mammals reaching as many as 150,000 (about 30 different species) in some seasons (Dailey 1993). The biggest threat to the marine life in this area is the contaminated wastewater flow that results from increased human activities springing from overpopulation and development. The increased flux of wastewater into the SCB create drastic changes and harmful effects on the ecosystems and will ultimately alter conditions for a safe environment for life in and around the waters until effective wastewater management is implemented.
This paper will cover the changes the wastewater levels have had in the SCB ecosystems and will address the harmful effects these changes have had on marine life and humans. We will take a look at the technical and social aspects of pollution in the SCB, define the various constraints to a sustainable coast line, and view some solutions. In addition, an intricately intertwined connection between science, economics, and social aspects of the Southern California Bight will be unraveled.
TECHNICAL ASPECTS
Major contaminants in the SCB can be divided in two categories: point and non-point source pollution. Point pollution is pollution that comes form an identifiable source (i.e., industrial plants). "Non point sources of contaminants are those that are diffuse or poorly defined" (i.e., agricultural runoffs, sewage waste inputs) (National Research Council 1990). Four major sources contribute to point-source contamination in the SCB: municipal outfalls, industrial outfalls, oil spills, and power plants.
POINT SOURCE POLLUTION SOURCES
"Ocean outfalls of municipal sewerage systems... [are] giant pipes that extrude inadequately treated or untreated human wastes into...shallow coastal waters" (Sindermann 1996). There are sixteen municipal treatment plants that discharge partially treated sewage directly into the Southern California Bight. More than 230 million gal/day of this treated sewage is carried by rivers and storm drains into the ocean (National Research Council 1990). However, Michael J. Kennish notes that "the water quality of the wastewaters entering the Southern California Bight has improved steadily over the past 25 years due to increased source control" and improved effluent treatment (Pollution Impacts 1998).
What some may argue is that the issue is not how much municipal wastewaters have improved over the years but that there is an increasing amount of it entering the SCB; 12.58 million pounds of toxic chemicals went through sewage treatment plants in 1995 (Water Watch 1998). Southern California's largest municipal treatment plants have had a 15% increase of cumulative flow between 1971 and 1994 (Kennish 1998). But strengthened legislation, and increased point source policies have contributed to a decline of mass emissions like silver, cadmium, chromium, copper, nickel, and DDT, which were the highest in municipal discharges (Dailey 1993). DDT is short for dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane. Chlorinated hydrocarbons (DDT) accumulate and are stored in the fatty tissues of living species. Fish are being affected by high levels of DDT from runoffs and municipal or industrial outfalls. Stout and Beezhold did a study in 1981 that showed commercial fishes that were collected off the west coast near Los Angeles to have the highest concentrations of DDT (Dailey 1998). Another case is in 1995 where the fish used in a San Francisco Bay study were all contaminated with PCB's (polychlorinated biphenyls), another persistent chlorinated hydrocarbon (Water Watch 1998).
Chlorinated hydrocarbons have decreased 99% in inputs between the 1971 and 1994 period, but the persistent DDT is still evident in mammals and the ocean (Kennish 1998). Studies from the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts have "analyzed young (1-3 cm) Dover sole from trawl stations off Palos Verdes...[with] concentrations of DDE...as high as 8 mg per kg" (Dailey 1993). DDE is the primary contaminant from historical DDT input (Dailey 1993).
INDUSTRIAL OUTFALL
Industrial outfalls are the principal source of DDT contamination in the SCB. A case of DDT contamination in the Los Angeles sewer system was traced to a major pesticide manufacturing plant (Dailey 1993). The 44 industrial sites contribute 450.5 million cubic meters per year into the Los Angeles and Orange county areas (Dailey 1993). These contribute more than just chlorinated hydrocarbons, but also biocides (chlorine), radionuclides, and metals (National Research Council 1990).
POWER PLANTS
Power plants discharge 10 times the volume of municipal treatment plants and excrete mainly cooling waters into the southern California bays and estuaries (Dailey 1993). Cooling water is the largest type of discharge to the SCB. It comes from "[f]ourteen major thermal power generating stations and one nuclear power generating station...[that discharges] approximately [a total of] 8 X 10^12 liters per year of cooling water." Cadmium, chromium, nickel, lead, and zinc were found near power plants in the Ventura, Los Angeles, and Orange County coastlines (Dailey 1993). In addition to these trace metals, chlorine is introduced to seawater because "it is used in the form of sodium hypochlorite twice a day for about 20 minutes in the generating plants to prevent microbial fouling of condenser tubes" (Dailey 1993).
The prevention of "microbial fouling" takes its toll when the power plant's pollution affect marine life like fish. With the level of cooling waters from power plants, "juvenile and adult fish and invertebrates and the entrainment of fish eggs and larvae in cooling water intakes during normal operations and heat treatments...have an impact" (Dailey 1993). A case study between October 1978 through September 1980 reported by Herbinson in 1981 found that the eight coastal power plants of the Southern California Edison Company "impinged an average of 2.2 million fish per year, at an average total weight of 215,000 pounds (National Research Council 1990).
OIL POLLUTION
Oil is another major point source pollution that enters the SCB. Oil spills occur from oil tankers, oil platforms, and other plants. Eganhouse and Kaplan in 1982 estimated that a total of about 17,400 metric tons per year of petroleum hydrocarbons from the five largest municipal wastewater treatment plants entered the Southern California Bight (National Research Council 1990). More notably, oil and grease runoff from land and stormwater flows in high concentrations. For example, in 1985 emissions of 28,600 metric tons of oil and grease was estimated from the Los Angeles River alone. However, on a positive note, implementation of source control and improved removal methods have decreased oil and grease discharges "by approximately one-half, from 63,000 metric tons per year in 1971 to 34,300 metric tons per year in 1985" (National Research Council 1990).
NON-POINT POLLUTION
Non-point pollution include sources from surface runoffs (including river and storm runoffs), aerial fallout, and agricultural runoffs. Holmes (1979) referred this as pollution that is:
In addition, aerial and agricultural contamination add to surface flow and increases the levels of pesticides, volatile organic compounds, and solids (Novotny 1994). Rainfall runoff intensifies the agricultural contamination by carrying pollutants used for farming into nearby waters. The proximity of polluting agricultural operations to a watercourse makes agriculture to be an evident problem of diffuse pollution to the SCB. (Novotny 1994).
High levels of contaminants from each source are dangerous enough to leave a harmful impact on the life that depend on clean waters. Carl Sindermann in 1996 gives a good illustration:
"California has some of the biggest outfall pipes in the world. An early study, 40 years ago, of the effects of sewage effluents from one Los Angeles outfall disclosed severe effects on fish in the immediate area. Many had eroded fins and ulcerations, and their flesh was flaccid and watery. Some had skeletal defects and missing eyes, other had large external tumors."
Major effects like these on fish indicate that the levels and kinds of contaminants are nowhere near safe. These levels affect other marine species as well. Many of the birds that feed on fish and other water organisms are also being affected (Dailey 1993). Finding a method to measure the effects of non-point pollution on these mammals was crucial.
The amount of silver has been found to be a unique tracer of wastewater discharges to the marine environment because of the relative absence of natural inputs of silver (Sanudo-Wilhelmy 1992). Using silver as an indicator of wastewater discharges, it may be able to prevent large amounts of harmful discharges that causes such destruction to California coastal fishes.
DDT IN NON-POINT POLLUTION
DDT is a toxic compound used as an insecticide that was found to be unbiodegradable in the 1970's. In fact, there is a bioaccumulation and biomagnification in the food web (trophical levels) (Novotny 1994). Bioaccumualation is independent of the trophic level and builds in the organism. Whereas, "biomagnification means that the concentration of the contaminant [in this case, DDT] is increasing with the trophic level of the organism" (Novotny 1994). Novotny illustrates the importance of biomagnification in marine life with a table (see below).
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As species rank higher in the trophic level, more concentrations of DDT can be found showing that biomagnification of DDT is a persistent and increasing problem.
Marine mammals are also being affected by the diffuse spread of DDT. "Chlorinated hydrocarbons have been linked to reproductive failure in California sea lions in the SCB" (Dailey 1993). Dolphins have been washed ashore along the southern coastal beaches with the highest levels of DDT in the world (Water Watch 1998).
HEAVY METALS
Heavy metals also affect marine species. Heavy metals affect the liver and kidneys of marine mammals. There is also a possible association between premature births in the California sea lions. High levels of cadmium have been found in sea otters near central California but no detrimental effects have been reported (Dailey 1993).
OIL
Oil is another major contaminant to the marine species. Oil can directly affect water mammals by ingestion or contact with the skin or fur. These marine mammals depend on their fur for insulation and buoyancy. Without this protection and capabilities the survival rates dramatically drop. The Exxon Valdez oil spill is a good example of non-point source oil impact. More than 1000 sea otters died in Prince William Sound, which shows the dangers of oil contamination and how much human impacts can effect the marine life.
Oil is not only limited to marine species, it affects birds as well. After the Santa Barbara Channel blowout in 1969, "the California Department of Fish and Game estimated that more than 3600 birds were killed" (Dailey 1993). Unlike oil, DDT affects the overall population of birds in time by thinning the shells of their eggs. Many do not hatch and other young birds die form high levels of DDT contamination.
HEALTH IMPACTS
If these severe injuries and fatalities affect the marine world this much imagine what it can do to humans. A primary concern by many is how oil, DDT, metals, or wastes in general affect humans. There is constant direct contact between people and contaminated waters either through fishing, swimming, or eating sea food. There has been health impacts on swimmers near the Santa Monica Bay and other locations that have high levels of fecal coliform bacteria on beaches, but the individual cases have not been documented (Dailey 1993). In 1995, Unocal illegally dumped dioxin, a dangerous pesticide that is known as carcinogenic (cancer-causing) and a teratogen (fetus deforming). In short, more investigation, more studies, and strict policy making is in need if the public is to completely understand how these contaminants affect us directly. However, it is important to note that there is considerable amount of evidence provided by marine life that the levels and types of contaminants does or will indeed affect the human population severely.
SOCIAL ASPECTS
The importance of including social impacts in the SCB reveals that human impacts uniquely ties in with the conditions of the local waters. The social facets of wastewater encompasses several parts. These parts can be best summarized in two words: social capital. Robert Goodland and Herman Daly present social capital as
There is a very close relationship between human activities and its affects on the sea creatures. The southern Californian population creates a lot of tension and stress on the waters because of their needs and demands. "It can...be argued that human intrusions into marine habitats are ubiquitous and are especially demonstrable in the coastal waters where the abnormalities and mortalities occur" (Sindermann 214). Much of the human intrusions or wastewater in the SCB originates from:
Each field has their own role to play in finding answers to a balanced system. Organic wastes from sewage discharge into estuaries can have long-term ecological impacts, but what are they? The scientific area, through research and empirical facts, can monitor the social impacts on humans and marine life that will be far more critical in the future. For example, the long-term public health problems on humans from the SCB is growing and ways to reduce these problems are increasingly becoming a concern in people's minds. The heavy contamination can result in cancers, genetic defects, and even death. Broadening the scope of focus to human impacts in the science field is just as important as measuring silver near a runoff. A way to encompass science with social aspects, for example, is through risk-benefit analysis that incorporates not only empirical facts but also a normative assessment (Tippie 1982).
Can we slow the discharge into the waters so the marine life can absorb it? The economist can broaden their scope of study into areas like the SCB to measure the market effects of fish becoming a scarce resource and finding ways to privatize a commodity that would not have otherwise been competitive. A method like a competitive market can be a long-term solution for a better absorption rate of wastewater in the SCB. Placing fish or clean waters on a market system would place rights to fish or the rights to pollute in the waters. It would create competition for the permits, limiting the total amount of "taking" or polluting a resource and would benefit everyone in the long run. A competitive market has established successful air quality management in the past decade, so the economic model stands as a positive guide to managing SCB's wastewater levels in an economically sound and environment-friendly way. However, economic growth, which is dependent on the uncontrolled population growth, remains to be a factor for the capacity for the water to maintain itself. An increase of about 90 million people a year is the real driving force of demand for resources such as food, water, and energy. The 37% of the world's population that lives within 100 km of the coast also contribute to the demands that are depleting the SCB (Costa-Pierce 1998). Finding a way to curb the population growth is imperative for decreasing harmful levels of discharge into the SCB.
Can we curtail future negative impacts? The political arena has a major impact in all realms of any human activities. Politics would seem to be the most influential to the ocean compared to other fields because of their end control on what is allowed and what is not allowed in the SCB's waters. Careful attention and cooperation in this are would be most crucial. Grassroots activism and public interest groups that rally their concerns about their health effects from the ocean, and extensive scientific research or data compiled for wastewater impacts in SCB have pressured politicians to develop enforcement policies for cleaner waters. In result, industries end up more conscious about their polluting habits.
Politicians and economists play a significant role together in implementing policies. Without the economists deliberation about finding an efficient method of production while reducing the amount of waste into the ocean, a politician's effort to enforce a policy will become almost futile. Regulations regarding the coasts must take into account all aspects that affect the southern Californian ocean areas including the economic effects. An empirical and normative assessment taking all aspects into account (similar to a risk-benefit analysis a scientist would incur) is a good solution for policy making for reducing wastewater levels in a very important ecosystem. Including to enforce accurate technical (measurements, data collection, tests) and social (health impact assessments, interviews) monitoring efforts is also important.
There is an urgent need to bring together a sense of community between all factors that influence the SCB's marine life and ecosystems. Finding the balance between science and human systems through incorporating different fields of work is a coordinated effort to balance scientific studies and facts; economic theories and market impacts; and policies. A hopeful reduction of harmful effects on both human and marine life will be in sight with such efforts.
PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES
Constraints to a sustainable Southern California Bight (SCB) emerge from technical, economic, and social problems. Environmental Sustainability (ES) is the maintenance of natural capital and involves keeping it intact. Natural capital is defined as ecosystems and ecosystems services (Goodland 1996). To achieve ES, sustainable development is often times considered to be a part of the solution. "Sustainable development is development without growth in throughput of matter and energy beyond regenerative and absorptive capacities" (Goodland 1996). Sustainable development also includes methods of conservation and management of natural resources.
TECHNICAL PROBLEMS
There are several technical constraints to sustaining the SCB. The latest and newest forms of the major problems arise from non-point source pollution. "Major reductions [of storm runoff] have occurred in the mass emissions of contaminants from waste treatment plants in the late 1970s and 1980s, suggesting that the relative contribution of storm runoff has increased" (Dailey 1993). An initial response to reductions of storm runoff in treatment plants might be overlooked as a positive indicator of a reduction of storm runoff in general. However, where there is rain, soil, and contaminants, a reduction is unlikely and a problem of more storm runoff entering the SCB without any sort of treatment poses a greater threat.
There has been some effort to assess the storm runoff that enters the southern California waters. "A major problem in assessing mass emissions from runoff is the lack of consistency in sampling low-flow (summer) and high-flow periods in the major storm channels" (Dailey 1993). The consistency Dailey is referring to is finding a "good estimate of annual inputs from storm runoff that could be compared to other sources of pollution to the SCB" (Dailey 1993). Without even a good estimate of what and how much is being polluted, it is difficult to find a solution.
Another non-point source pollution that causes problems is agricultural runoff. One of the major causes of agricultural pollution is the "proximity of polluting agricultural operations, such as feedlots and barnyards, to watercourses" (Novotny 1994). Some factors like uncontrolled access of livestock to streams, rivers, lakes; crop production systems that plow right up to the edge of a riverbank; or draining wastewater into low-lying wetlands all cause detrimental damage that eventually flow out to the southern Californian waters (Novotny 1994). Agricultural pollution also contributes to pesticides that have been detected in local waters and even in drinking water supplies (Novotny 1994).
Currently, the specific effects of storm runoff, agricultural pollution, or pesticides are uncertain. "There is...no clear-cut evidence of which components in storm-water represent a hazard to humans or marine species" (Dailey 1993). Uncertainty arises from the inability to identify the one contaminant, the one source, or the long term effects of a pollutant because in many cases it is not just one pollutant. Combined mixtures of toxins and undetectable long-term effects complexes the issue even further.
Turning to point-source pollution, the 1972 Clean Water Act enforced by the California State Water Resources Control Board helped with significant reduction of point source pollution problems like DDT and PCB levels. Silver was found to be one of the better indicators of municipal waste discharge, which could enhance the assessment of point source pollution. Unfortunately silver is hard to regulate because its "likely numerous sources are not well known" (Dailey 1993).
ECONOMIC
The economic constraints to sustaining the SCB results from the increasing demands and needs of the people. There are many inefficient methods that are carried out because it becomes more efficient to place the burden on common grounds. As Novotny phrased it from Solow in 1971, "[e]xcess pollution arises when the waste-disposal capacity of the environment is provided free of charge" and he further adds that excess pollution also arises "when the consumers-producers do not incorporate into their economic considerations the cost of the damage caused by pollution" (Novotny 1994).
SOCIAL
The biggest social problem is curtailing the exponentially increasing population. There is population momentum of 20 years before the society can reach zero-population, and regulations to curtail the growth is an important but very controversial start (Gardener 1996).
POLITICAL
Much of the economic and social problems arise form the conditions of the societal set up or governmental laws and regulations. Managing the waste in the SCB is very critical to healthy sustainable waters. The problem is deciding on how to balance the demands for increased consumption and to enforce policies once a policy is decided.
Understanding the carrying capacity of the SCB may be understood but reacting to reductions, implementations, and sustainability are usually not followed through. The problem, then, gets handed over to government officials to take action. However, the policies quite frequently do not necessarily address the environmental issue or do not get enforced.
OPPORTUNITIES
These are all discrete problems that are more difficult to address and solve than a well-defined problem with a ready solution, but there are opportunities to these issues. For technical problems, solutions may lie at the specific level like more efficient testing or monitoring. For economic problems, fines, subsidies, permits, and other incentives can be used more widespread regarding cleaner waters in the SCB (like permits for cleaner air that have improved southern California's air quality). As for social concerns, conservation on everybody's part will help ease some of the high demands of resource intake.
However, to make a long term sustainable impact, more considerations are needed in all aspects of constraint. Controlling population growth is crucial. The main problems with all environmental issues is the tragedy of the commons that becomes more problematic as the increase of population grows. A solution to uncontrolled population growth is to educate people of the need to do so (see educating people below). The people have the power to be able to put this issue in their own hands and control over-population.
CONSERVATION
Conservation on people's part is also crucial. Most people start realizing to conserve until after a devastating shortage or epidemic crisis occur. This effort is inadequate if the society is aiming for a sustainable coast. Conserving requires to change behaviors, habits, and attitudes, and are necessary to relieve some of the stresses on the environment. Changes in behavior include everything from buying imperfect apples to taking five minute showers. These behaviors are very difficult and slow to change, but it is possible.
EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
Other sustainable options are to educate people about important environmental issues (like controlling the population) and combining the effort to increase societal action and community management. Education through community management is definitely an option as part of a solution. Besides the ways to educate, there are different effects to take into account. Education, in the short-term, "work[s] only when the main barriers to action are internal to the individual" (Gardner 1996). For example, depositing a can to recycle starts from a conscientious habit. Education, in the long run, are more effective to larger scale issues. By informing the individuals about the toxic waste levels policies, society will take action for better water policies.
Community management plays a role with educating citizens, but effective community management requires several factors. Organization and management abilities are the basic needs. Once available, community management can impact large-scale social forces like reducing the local resource dependence through incentive-based strategies and uniting or strengthening community to influence politicians to enforce the right kinds of laws needed for a sustainable ocean.
The basket of options include very specific to very
general opportunities. But, the overall message is that it takes everyone
from an individual to a community, and from combined efforts from all fields
to earnestly and effectively sustain dangerous wastewater levels in the
Southern California Bight.
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