Municipal sewage includes almost everything that goes down the sewer 

 system from homes and streets. Agricultural wastes include salt from erosion, 

 fertilizers, pesticides and runoff from feedlots. Industrial wastes consist of 

 acids, chemicals, and animal and vegetable matter produced by paper, steel, 

 meat processing, and other industries. Dredging spoils, sand, refuse, waste 

 oil, industrial chemicals, and sludges are transported by tug and barge and 

 dumped into the ocean. Industrial chemicals released in the atmosphere or 

 dumped into rivers find their way to the ocean. Drycleaning solvents are 

 evaporated into the atmosphere at a rate of 350,000 tons per year. In the 

 United States 1 million tons of gasoline yearly is lost through evaporation, 

 much of which is eventually deposited in the ocean. 



Specific oceanic disposal areas are defined off New York Harbor for sew- 

 age, sludge, mud, and stone, cellar dirt and waste acid; off Delaware Bay 

 for sewage sludge ; off Boston and Charleston Harbors for dredged material. 

 The overall affect of such large-scale disposal on the marine environment 

 will require careful study. 



Because of its highly industrialized society, the United States is believed 

 to be responsible for approximately one-fifth of the world's coastal effluents. 

 Estimates indicate that 48 million tons of solid wastes were disposed at sea 

 off U.S. coasts in 1968 at a cost estimated at $29 million. These estimated 

 amounts and costs are set forth in table II-l. 



The ocean is increasingly being used as a disposal site for wastes, yet the effects on the 

 marine environment are little known. Depicted is I ton of mechanically compressed 

 garbage which was dumped into the ocean as part of an experiment investigating new 

 methods of waste disposal. 



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