Channel Islands Restoration

Between the 1940s and 1970s, DDT (an organic insecticide) from a chemical manufacturing facility and PCBs (a group of organic chemicals used in hydraulic fluids, transformers, and paints) from several industrial facilities were discharged into the marine environment offshore of Los Angeles.

These releases contaminated at least 40 square kilometers of ocean floor in the Southern California Bight with approximately 100 tons of DDT and 10 tons of PCBs. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, other natural resource trustees, and researchers documented severe reproductive impairment of bald eagles, peregrine falcons, and seabirds as a result of this contamination.

The natural resource damage case with the responsible parties was settled in December 2000 for a total of $130 million. These funds are to be used for remediation of the contaminated sediments by the Environmental Protection Agency and for restoration of the injured natural resources by the natural resource trustees.

The Montrose Settlements Restoration Program (MSRP) was established to manage the settlement funds and the subsequent restoration. The MSRP is directed by a Trustee Council made up of representatives from the three federal (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) and three State (Department of Fish and Game, State Lands Commission, and Department of Parks and Recreation) natural resource trustee agencies.

So far, the MSRP’s bald eagle program has maintained bald eagle pairs on Santa Catalina Island and initiated a 5 year feasibility study on the restoration of bald eagles on the Northern Channel Islands in partnership with the San Francisco Zoo’s bald eagle captive breeding program and the Institute for Wildlife Studies.

These projects involve monitoring and sample collection, removal and artificial incubation of Santa Catalina Island eggs, and release of bald eagle chicks onto both Santa Catalina and Santa Cruz Islands on an annual basis.

As a result of these efforts, bald eagles can again be seen in Channel Islands National Park after a fifty year absence.

Bald Eagle Nest
Santa Catalina Island

• History, documents and other program elements Montrose Settlements Restoration Program (MSRP): www.montroserestoration.gov

• Environmental Protection Agency actions to reduce exposure to DDT/PCB contaminated sediments: http://www.epa.gov/region09/features/pvshelf/

• Channel Islands National Park: http://www.nps.gov/chis/index.htm

• Channel Islands restoration: http://www.nps.gov/chis/rm/Index.htm