52 



11 



the floating debris in U.S. harbors, EPA surveyed the harbors of Boston, New York, 

 Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, Miami, Houston, San Juan, Mayaquez, Seattle, 

 Tacoma, San Francisco, Oakland, and Honolulu. Among other things, we found 

 that plastics comprised over 80% of the debris. 



We also noted during these field surveys that sewage, medical and drug 

 related debris was found to be most abundant in several cities like New York, 

 Boston, and Philadelphia, which do not have upgraded combined sewer systems 

 where raw sewage and storm water is discharged into the harbors during wet 

 weather. We also found substantial amount of marine debris in Baltimore which 

 does not have CSOs. Materials released from several of the CSOs in two cities, 

 Philadelphia, PA, and Boston, MA, were sampled, identified, and quantified. Storm 

 drains have also been sampled to determine their significance as a source of marine 

 debris. This information on sources and the presence of debris in U.S. harbors is 

 useful as an educational tool. It will also be helpful in the future to identify the 

 types of technologies needed to control debris released from CSOs and storm 

 sewers. 



EPA is working with NOAA through an Inter-agency Agreement (lAG) to 

 fund the annual international beach cleanup activities organized by the Center for 

 Marine Conservation (CMC) and to maintain several offices for information 

 distribution. In order to better understand the impacts of our actions on the debris 

 problem, EPA is developing a statistically designed beach sampling methodology to 

 be able to make a statistically valid trend assessment. 



