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Good afternoon Kr. Chairman and MeirjDers of the Subcommittees. 

 My name is Betsy Schrader. 1 am the Marine Debris Program 

 Director of the Pollution Prevention Program for the Center for 

 Marine Conservation (CMC), an organization of 110,000 members 

 committed to the conservation of living marine resources and 

 their habitats. We appreciate your invitation to testify today 

 regarding H.R. 31, the Beaches Environmental Assessment, Closure, 

 and Health (B.E.A.C.H.) Act of 1993. 



In its letter of invitation, the Subcommittees requested 

 witnesses to provide their perspectives on the legislation, the 

 benefits of national water quality criteria and monitoring 

 requirements for coastal recreational waters, and studies or 

 surveys relevant to the hearing. In response, our testimony 

 today will address these concerns by providing information 

 relevant to the legislation and hearing in four primary areas: 



1) data collected on beach debris complied in the National 

 Marine Debris Data Base; 



2) the relationship of floatable debris to the safety and 

 public health of recreational waters; 



3) sources of floatables; and 



4) elements of the B.E.A.C.H. Act that seek to address the 

 problem of floatables. 



The Center for Marine Conservation supports the enactment of 

 H.R. 31. We support the issuance of federal water quality 

 criteria to protect public health and safety in coastal 

 recreational waters; the development of uniform monitoring 

 methods and guidelines for assessing water quality; the setting 



