Massive Fish Kill Raises Questions in Los Angeles
Posted March 8, 2011 in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment
There was a massive fish kill near Los Angeles, with the developing story reported on by the Los Angeles Times. It’s too early to know exactly what happened, but one theory discussed in the Times piece is intriguing: that the fish kill may result from a “perfect storm” of factors, one of which is runoff pollution. It has long been known that urban runoff is a major and in many places growing source of water pollution in the U.S. In Southern California, this is true. As early as 1996, work by the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP) identified runoff as exceeding all other point source of pollution but one (a treatment plant which has since been upgraded).
When I saw the story written by Times reporters Barboza and Weiss (who won a Pulitzer for his series on the oceans a few years ago), I thought of the SCCWRP study because it posed a question nearly ten years ago that now seems perhaps prescient: long-term, what is the fate of all those pollutants in storm water? Among other things, we know that, short-term, storm water can be acutely toxic in the near-shore ocean environment. We know it can substantially increase human health risks for bathers that encounter storm water plumes, even in the dry season when the runoff is from urban water sources like sprinklers. Does the responsibility for this massive fish kill and others like it start, at least in part, with the urban slop discharged to coastal water in LA and other places? It’s too early to tell, but stay tuned.
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Comments
Casper Pieters — Mar 9 2011 06:12 AM
The ocean biome has been abused, exploited, modified and polluted. Dead zones, vast plastic gyros, mutated creatures, population crashes, acidification and the list goes on. No wonder we are witnessing such sad phenomenon. And even sadder, our fate is tied to it. At what point do we collectively assume our responsibilities, rather than sticking our heads in the sea.
Isaiah — Mar 9 2011 04:30 PM
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/dbeckman/massive_fish_kill_raises_quest.html posted on facebook.
Concerned -- looking for answers — Mar 10 2011 12:31 PM
Please keep up informed about the scientific results. It was a shock to me to learn during the Deepwater Horizon debacle that oil drilling wells have been and continue to be spewing/leaking oil as an accepted way of doing business.
Hopefully we'll continue to focus on the learnings from the Deepwater Horizon failure. In the same vein - -let's focus on what caused the death of these millions of fish in LA.
Liberty Hill Foundation — Mar 10 2011 07:34 PM
Liberty Hill Foundation has been at the forefront in the fight for reform and environmental justice. This incident of ecological pollution is an example of what Liberty Hill Foundation is working tirelessly against. Please click the link below to read about what we have done to help communities who are victims to pollution:
http://www.libertyhill.org/page.aspx?pid=511