Wilson Seeks Probe Into Navy Link to Sea Dumping

As medical waste continued to wash up on San Diego County beaches Friday, Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) requested a Pentagon investigation of suspected Navy ocean dumping of antiseptic vials and other wastes in a letter to Navy Secretary William Ball III.

In the letter, sent from Wilson’s Washington office, the senator expressed “concern about persistent reports of medical waste from Naval stockpiles washing up along the Southern California coastline.” Wilson asked Ball to direct his “immediate attention” to an investigation of the flotsam that littered beaches this week in Orange and San Diego counties.

Direct Link to Navy

“I am most interested in knowing if, indeed, Navy sources are responsible for this dumping; what disciplinary or legal action will be taken against those who may have violated the law or federal or Navy regulations; what specific environmental impact may have occurred as a result of these incidents and, finally, what specific corrective action may be required,” Wilson wrote.

Friday’s harvest of medical waste from San Diego County beaches included the first item to be linked directly to the Navy--an orange bottle of pills that bore the phrase “Naval Medical Center, San Diego California,” said health and naval officials.

The bottle, which was half-full of green capsules containing an undetermined prescription drug, also had a person’s last name and the words “Naval Station” on the label, said Larry Aker, assistant deputy director of the county’s environmental health services division.

Check of Records

Late Friday, Commander Ron Wildermuth, a Navy spokesman in San Diego, said a check of records showed that the prescription was filled at the 32nd Street Naval Station and that a sailor with the same last name as that on the bottle is currently serving on a Pacific fleet ship.

“We think we can identify a unit and see if the guy’s there,” said Wildermuth, who declined to say on which ship the man is deployed. Wildermuth said he didn’t know if the ship has been in port or out at sea, and added that his roster of names is about three months old.

“We don’t know if this guy that we think we have identified is the right guy,” said Wildermuth. “There could be other Navy dependents or retired (Navy personnel) who had the prescription filled.”

Despite the link, Navy officials on Friday said there was a “relatively small” chance that the bottle indicated that the Navy was the source of the medical waste that has been plaguing San Diego shores for the past three weeks.

‘Another Clue’

“I still do not see how this is significant,” said Chief Craig Heubler. “I think this is another clue. We’re going to pursue it.

“I could see the individual fishing on the beach and taking his medication and throwing it into the surf.

“It’s possible that it was in garbage, on trash, on a ship,” he said. “Anything is possible at this point. But give us a break. Let us find the individual and figure this out.”

Heubler said Friday that the Navy has broadened its cooperation with local health officials by asking its helicopter pilots stationed at North Island to keep an eye open for illegal dumpings of medical wastes in the ocean. Any illegal dumpings are to be reported to the county health department, he said.

Other Waste

The prescription bottle was picked up Friday by health officials at La Jolla Shores, where most of the medical wastes have been deposited at high tide during the past three weeks.

Aker said that other medical wastes retrieved Friday included:

- A 10-milliliter glass vial containing a white powder and a surgical skin marker at the beach in Del Mar.

- A 10-milliliter bottle of topical solution for athlete’s foot and jock itch, as well as three pharmadine iodine bottles at Solana Beach. The topical solution was of hospital issue and bore a federal stock number, Aker said.

- A 1,000-milliliter bag of lactate ringer solution on Dog Beach in Ocean Beach.

- Two syringes--one large, one small--on a beach near Oceanside.

- A bottle of pharmadine iodine solution on a beach west of Point Loma College. The bottle on Friday was traced to the Sherwood manufacturing company in New Jersey, Aker said.

The medical wastes on Friday were the latest to hit San Diego shores since Oct. 29, when people at Black’s Beach discovered a vial of blood, a syringe with an attached needle and a patient’s wristband among other articles.

The heaviest influx of medical wastes have come this week, forcing health officials to conduct daily patrols of the beaches to pick up items from Imperial Beach to Carlsbad. Some of the items have been traced to a military supply depot in Tracy, Calif., but officials have been unable to track them beyond that point.

Contained Antiseptics

About 70 vials were found on beaches in Orange County on Monday and Tuesday. Their strange shape caused initial alarm that they might be explosive devices, but county health officials on Tuesday determined that the vials contained antiseptics used by the armed services for protection in chemical-biological warfare.

Navy officials said earlier this week that a special military team was looking into the medical debris that washed up in San Diego County and the chemical vials that floated ashore in Orange County.