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P.O. Box 1337, Newport Beach, CA 92659 thelogeditor@thelog.com.
Letters/Online Comments
(APRIL 30 – MAY 13)
If any of the involved parties can be identifi ed, could the area be treated as a hazmat site, with cleanup and remediation paid for by those responsible? — Brian Aherne
(APRIL 30 – MAY 13)
Growing up in the South Bay and fi shing the Santa Monica Bay we have all known of this issue for years and it has been 50 years since any dumping has been done the specifi c gravity of the actual DDT is well above sea water the natural circulation by current sweeps south along the coast o shore down into Baja and across Hawaii it may be prevalent still in the local seabed but the solvents/ propellants have long dissipated. Stirring up the sentiment at that depth would most likely introduce further contamination I believe. Not a lot of critters feed at those depths from the sediment and any that did 50-90 years ago probably adapted to shallower areas perished or just got through it. Our oceans defi nitely need protection and mostly from humans interfering with how it deals with life messing with it. — Don Clark
RE: “Q&A” (APRIL 20 – MAY 13)
Mi amor de log — Lisa Hmphy-Ditimus
Comments are edited for clarity.
FAST FACTS Memorial Day: A History
By: JORDAN B. DARLING
UNITED STATES— Memorial Day became a federal holiday in 1971, but its roots trace back to the end of the Civil War.
In May 1868, General John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of a veterans’ group known as the Grand Army of the Republic, declared that May 30 should become a nationwide day of commemoration for the more than 620,000 soldiers killed in the war.
Originally called Decoration Day, Logan said that Americans should lay flowers and decorate the graves of soldiers lost in the war.
There are two schools of thought on the date; Logan chose May 30 because it was a rare day that didn’t fall on the anniversary of a Civil War battle; or May 30 ensured that flowers across the country would be in full bloom.
According to History.com, Logan’s wife said that Logan was inspired by women’s groups across the south that were gathering informally to decorate the graves of Confederate soldiers.
America embraced Decoration Day from the start and in the first years 27 states held some sort of ceremony. By 1890 the holiday had been adopted as an official holiday by every former state of the Union. Initially it was only to remember those that were lost in the Civil War but was expanded to include all those lost in war after the United States entered World War I.
World War I brought along another tradition to Memorial Day, red poppies. A Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae spotted a group of red poppies standing out amongst the battle-ravaged landscape in Northern France and Flanders.
McCrae wrote a poem called “In Flanders Field” inspired by the red poppies and the soldiers buried beneath them. A Georgia school teacher named Moina Michael was inspired by the poem and launched a campaign to make the poppy a symbol of tribute to all who died in the war.
In 1971, Decoration Day was declared a national holiday by an act of Congress, and placed on the last Monday of May, changing the original date from May 30. As is tradition, the American flag should be hung at half-staff until noon on Memorial Day, then raised to the top of the staff.
And in 2000 U.S. Congress passed legislation for a National Moment of Remembrance at 3 p.m.
It’s important to remember and honor the soldiers, sailors, and airmen that gave their lives fighting for our country and our freedom.
Reader Q&A By Jordan B. Darling
(APRIL 30-MAY 13)
Q“If any of the involved parties can be identifi ed, could the area be treated as a hazmat site, with cleanup and remediation paid for by those responsible?”
AI couldn’t fi nd any defi nitive information about a hazmat site or if the companies could be identifi ed or held accountable.
What I did fi nd is that one of the companies has already been identifi ed, Montrose Chemical Corporation, a DDT Manufacturing plant in Torrance that had logs documenting the reported dumping of 1,700 tons of DDT o of the Palos Verde peninsula between 1947 and the early 1970s.
On Dec. 20, 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported that four chemical companies including Montrose entered into a settlement for $73 million to help restore the ocean environment o of Southern California.
The payments were to go to The Environmental Protection Agency to clean up the contamination.
The suit was originally fi led in 1990 and in 1996, the EPA declared the ocean o of Palos Verdes a national Superfund site, according to the Los Angeles Times article. It was designated as one of the country’s most hazardous sites.
As part of the agreement, the EPA cannot seek future funds from Montrose and the other defendants for o shore work.
According to the 2000 article, it was decided that removing the DDT would be a logistical nightmare and the EPA was expected to cover part of the deposit with a layer of sand dredged from the nearby harbor.
The study that was conducted this year shows that there was debris further out to sea and now there is a call for an expedited cleanup of the DDT by the Los Angeles County of Supervisors, according to a May 4 article from the Patch.
On Board With Johnson by J.R. Johnson
