DDT

A series of Times reports in recent years have unraveled a haunting history of how the nation’s largest manufacturer of DDT had once dumped its waste at sea, just off the coast of Los Angeles.

The iconic American bird was almost wiped out in the 1960s due to the pesticide DDT, which poisoned the eagles and made their eggs weak and flimsy.

Peregrine falcon numbers in Yosemite and across the country plummeted from the 1950s to the 1970s due to DDT poisoning.

The water board demanded the cities to submit plans by April to scan these areas for cancer-causing gamma radiation and sample for banned pesticides, including DDT.

The use of the insecticide DDT, as well as habitat destruction, played a significant role in the birds’ decline.