350 OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 



as we attempted to make sure with this industrial waste disposal ap- 

 plication in Houston, hold public hearings and do everytliing that can 

 be done to adequately inform the public as to what is involved here. 



Mr. Casey. You hit on anotlier thing I am sensitive about, and that 

 is public hearings. 



They had public hearings in Houston. The hearing examiner in 

 his re]>ort went to great lengths to say that no one in opposition had 

 furnished him with sufficient proof. 



I think the AEC should take more of a position of being the peo- 

 ple's advocate rather than just a judge to sit and determine who puts 

 up the best side. 



Do you agree with me on that ? 



Dr. LiEBERMAN. I would certainly say that it is the responsibility 

 of the AEC to make sure that whatever is proposed is done in a safe 

 way. I am not in the licensing or the regulatory part of the Com- 

 mission. 



Mr. Casey. The examiner's wording was such that it would appear 

 he was just sitting there as a judge to determine who put up the best 

 proof. 



I think the AEC examiner or representative, whoever he might be, 

 should take the attitude that he is there to see that the public is pro- 

 tected and not just 



Dr. LiEBERMAx, This is certainly a responsibility of the AEC, to 

 make sure the public is protected. 



When I mentioned hearings I didn't mean to refer to that specific 

 case, Ijut certainly I think the policy 



Mr. Casey, That is the only one I am familiar with. 



Dr. LiEBERMAN, It is fair to say tha^t in all of these operations the 

 primary consideration of the AEC is the protection of the public 

 health and safety. 



Mr, Casey. I am inclined not to agree with you with reference to 

 their being overly cautious in this last reconunendation in view of 

 the fact that they pinpoint sites and then turn around and say that 

 studies are needed. I do not think they were too cautious in that par- 

 ticular instance. I trust that a great deal of caution will be used 

 before any sites are pinpointed, because I think we have too much to 

 leani about these things yet to pick a site just 20 miles offshore used by- 

 sports fishermen and commercial fishermen, and in an area such as the 

 gulf coast. 



In one of their other publications they point out the general fea- 

 tures of the different coasts, and the gulf coast is described as a 

 straight shoreline, a wide shelf, where the range of tide is small, the 

 tidal currents are weak, permanent circulation is weak, and no up- 

 welling. That is set out in one of their other reports, wliich would 

 indicate to me that that stuff might stay there for you to monitor, 

 but it also means that should it reach a density so marine life would 

 pick it up, there would be no dispersion of it. We do not know 

 what the effects will be until further study. 



Dr. LiEBERMAN, As far as the technical details of the report are 

 concerned, I feel the committee may wish to question some of the 

 members of the NAS group. I am neitlier an oceanogrupher nor a 

 marine biologist, but in my reading of it and in my discussions with 

 the people involved, the sort of things you have just mentioned. 



