12 



to make this an open and cooperative process with all interested 

 parties. 



In addition to the ocean dumping criteria, all the dredging and 

 disposal actions, whether they are for Corps dredging activities or 

 for permits, are subject to essentially a veto by the Environmental 

 Protection Agency if EPA believes that the disposal would not 

 meet ocean dumping criteria. And if the disposal is proposed to be 

 in inland waters or within the territorial sea, it is also subject to a 

 veto by the states under the states authority given in Section 401 

 of the Clean Water Act. So there are extensive controls and checks 

 and balances in the system that go well beyond the authority of 

 the Secretary of the Army and the Corps to decide on these per- 

 mits. 



I am sure everybody is aware that the reason we are here is that 

 this issue is one of the most difficult and controversial ones to re- 

 solve. We are making a little bit of progress; frankly, not as much 

 as we would like. We continue to work very hard to try to resolve 

 these very difficult issues. We think the problem goes well beyond 

 dredging and disposal of dredged material. It extends to upland 

 sources that are in the first instance the cause of the pollution. We 

 don't believe that we are going to solve the dredging and disposal 

 problem without tackling the larger problem of introduction of pol- 

 lutants into the aquatic system. 



With respect to the New York permit situation, a lot of work was 

 done there. The problems that arose got caught in the middle, if 

 you will, of some evolving understandings of concerns about dioxin 

 and some evolving improvements in technology to assess the con- 

 stituents in material to the extent where we have increased by an 

 order of magnitude our ability to detect contaminants in material. 



I see my time has expired, and I will complete my oral statement 

 there. Thank you. 



[The prepared statement of Mr. Rees can be found at the end of 

 the hearing.] 



Mr. Ortiz. Thank you. Mr. Davies please. 



STATEMENT OF TUDOR DAVIES, ACTING DEPUTY ASSISTANT AD- 

 MINISTRATOR FOR WATER, U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

 AGENCY; ACCOMPANIED BY RICHARD CASPE, DIVISION DIREC- 

 TOR, REGION II OFFICE, NEW YORK 



STATEMENT OF TUDOR DAVIES 



Mr. Davies. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me introduce Mr. 

 Richard Caspe who is here with me today. He is the Water Man- 

 agement Division Director from our Region II Office in New York, 

 and I would like to ask your permission to have him join us at the 

 table. He has been intimately involved in the decisionmaking 

 there, and I think he can bring some firsthand experience to help 

 us if that meets with your approval. 



Mr. Ortiz. Yes. That would be fine. Sure. 



Mr. Davies. Thank you. EPA and the Corps together manage the 

 ocean dumping program with two processes, a permitting process 

 and a site designation, monitoring, and management process. We 

 have made significant progress in developing testing procedures for 

 material to be ocean disposed, and we published a manual that ev- 



