Congress orders study of toxic waste dumped in California ocean
H.R. 10536 — Ocean Protection and DDT Reduction Act · Filed by Salud Carbajal (D-CA) · Introduced Sep 24, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill tells NOAA to study toxic waste dumped in the San Pedro Basin off California. The waste includes DDT and military explosives. The bill gives $6 million per year until 2034 for research and monitoring. NOAA must find other ocean dump sites with the same problem. NOAA must report back to Congress in three years.
Who it affects
People who eat fish and seafood from the ocean. Scientists and researchers who study the ocean. The federal government, which will pay for the research.
One thing to notice
The bill studies the problem and looks for cleanup ways. It does not promise to actually clean it up. The bill may find many ocean dump sites with toxic waste. That could cost much more than the $6 million per year.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Sep 24, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Sep 24, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and House Committee on Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committee on Science, Space, and…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- DDT — A toxic chemical once used to kill insects, now banned.
- NOAA — The federal agency that studies the ocean and weather.
- San Pedro Basin — An area of ocean floor off the coast of California.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,755 characters) on Sep 28, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
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