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For years we’ve been reading about a patch of garbage the size of Texas floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, ingeniously dubbed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Basically, any trash that gets dumped in the water rides the currents to this one spot and joins an ever-increasing flotilla of crap. For all the breathless accounts of the mess and its impact on the area’s sealife, however, no one seemed to have a picture of the buildup.
In order to sate our own curiosity, VBS joined the crew of a research vessel studying the trash and sailed out into one of the most remote spots of open water in the world, the North Pacific Gyre, in search of this mythical garbage island. What we discovered once we got there was an ecological disaster beyond any of our expectations and possibly the single worst thing human beings have done to the planet and ourselves. Hope you’re into cancer and sex-reversal!
What a shock, and yet I’m not surprised. One day while working in near down town Los Angeles I got off the bus at MLK Jr and Central. I saw someone tip an overflowing pubic garbage can over into the street and proceed to stuff all the garbage into the rain gutter. Many people stood around and watched him as I began to raise my voice towards him exhorting him to stop and that what he’s dumping goes straight to the ocean. Everyone looked at me like I was the crazy person as did the person dumping into the storm drain. I’ve heard that the city now has some catch basins for storm drain systems, but if they reach a million pounds, or perhaps gallons, and they haven’t yet been emptied and cleaned the gates open automatically and dump into the ocean. One such basin is where I work at Los Angeles International Airport. How often is it cleaned? The City garbage can was over-flowing and often is because local businesses can’t afford to pay for trash pick-up and opt to dump it themselves. Some programs exist to help Local small business with garbage pick-up but they are poorly funded and inadequately staffed. As far as LAX, I found a clean water flow of approximately 35 gallons a minute draining into the sewage system. None of my supervisors or managers would take significant action to locate the source–such as prioritizing the problem and at least ordering me to prioritize the problem. Several months pasted before I was able to locate the problem and terminate the flow of water, taking it upon myself to do so. The source had been following for years–at 35 gallons a minute perhaps some 18 million gallons a year into the nearby Hyperion sewage processing plant which has overflowed and dumped millions of gallons of raw sewage into the ocean in recent years. So do I trust the City of LA to clean out its catch basins? One immediate short term solution I can think of is extensive over-site to follow-up with a combination of immediate forced retirement as well as possible fines and prosecution for supervisors and managers who allow such problems to continue. Municipalities must be forced to take responsibility beyond stenciling no dumping signs near storm drains and other near zero action policies.