118 



Ji- 



Sea-Dumping Ban: Good Politics, 

 But Not Necessarily Good Policy 



fJyMlCMAF.L SPECTER 



For millions o' people from Momuuk 

 to Maryland, mc broiling summer ol 

 I9S8 will be hard to forge I it was ihc 

 honest year ever recorded Repulsive 

 i rash slicks covered ihe Eastern shore* 

 line And borne upon a tide of public 

 outrage, garbage emerged as a potent 

 political issue 



In New York and New Jersey, who e 

 ! most of the waste appeared, health 

 ! officials closed beaches by the score 

 depriving sweliermg people of relief 

 Pictures ol i.sed syringes, dead dol- 

 phins and hi;rr.2n excrement scattered 

 across the sand became a staple of the 



Anger required action So that fall, 

 without registering a single vote of 

 opposition, Congress banned the 

 dumping of sewage into the ocean. The 

 law prohibited New York City from 

 dropping us processed waste into the 

 sea and forced officials to find costly 

 new ways to get rid of it 



The Rush to Ban 



rhis is a turning point in human 

 history.' sa.d a euphoric Represents- 

 William J. Hughes. Democrat of 



> Jersey, after the vote. Other offi- 

 cials agreed, rushing to embrace the 



as one of the most important envi- 



nenial rreasures ever enacted. , 



T>er 



i JUS 



bie 



Ocean dumping had absolutely noih 

 mg to do wuh the garbage that washed 

 up on the sand (hat year In fact, the 

 problems that caused the mess on the 

 beaches in 1988 — overtaxed sewage 

 systems — were largely ignored, and 

 the health risks they present are as 

 serious as they have ever been 



Most scientists agree that using the 

 sea as a garbage can was unpleasant 

 and arc pleased that it is no longer 

 legal Still, some argue that dumping 

 sewage in the Atlantic Ocean 106 miles 

 from the shore — which saved New 

 York and other cities billions of dollars 

 over the years — is less hazardous than 

 most of the disposal methods that have 

 replaced it. 



But Congressional leaders, relying 

 almost solely on the summer's vivid 

 images of filth, pushed through a ban 

 on ocean dumping As Senator John H 



ncdii 



unlu 



elyafu 



take 



like we h.ivc today with medical waste 

 washing up on mir beaches. to capture 

 the nil en i ton of the American public 

 and of Congress lint perhaps it is a 

 blessing in disguise, since il has .csult- 

 cd in oui action today to put n hall to 

 i lie ocean dumping of sludge " 



Representative Thomas J Manton, 

 Democrat of Queens, opposed the act j 

 at first, saying it would simply shift J 

 waste hom sea to land, including land 

 in his own district Out looking back to 

 ihai unic. he recalled "If you opposed 

 the bill you were treated like a leper or 

 an environmental terrorist Nobody 

 warned in discuss the relative risks or 

 the mci its it had been a bad summei. 

 and we all wanted to be able to say we 

 did something So we passed a law 1 

 i ncd to have a debate. And it was like 1 

 was trying to destroy the planet." 



Because of the Ocean Dumping Act, 

 New York City spent $2 billion on giant 

 plants that turn sludge into fertilizer 

 The city plans to spend at least $300 

 million a year over the next decade to 

 dispose of us sludge in this way and in 

 others — many limes more than it 

 would cost to dump it in the ocean. 

 Better Ways to Spend 

 Even some of the ban's most enthusi- 

 astic proponents at major environmen- 

 tal organizations, none of whom would 

 be quoted by name, concede that the 

 money might have been better spent on 

 other problems, like fixing the exten- 

 sive system of siorm sewers that 

 caused the waste to wash up on the 

 beaches in the first place. 



Indeed, the ocean dumping ban is a 

 striking triumph of environmental poli- 



SCH 



riorv. 



lion of how environmental policy can 

 often be directed by symbols and fears i 

 than by reasoned discussion of benefit 



In 1988, and still today, the real prob- I 

 lem came from New York's aged, i 

 6,200-mile network of sewer pipes that 

 mix household waste wuh rainwater 

 Normally, it is all treated together But 

 during storms, sewage treatment 

 plants arc quickly overwhelmed, and 

 sewer pipes carry millions of gallons of 

 raw waste directly to the rivers and 

 liaibors surrounding the city 



In fact, officials have closed beaches 



tin 





they did before the ban 



! often 

 nl into 



T he Real Problem 



Wallflower 



At a Political Dance 



Modern sewerage usually consists of 

 two systems: storm sewers that carry' 

 uff excess rainwater, and sanitary sew- 

 (is that handle sewage that needs 



But older, combined systems, like 

 New York City's, serve almost 20 per- 

 cent of the nation's population, about 50 

 million people living in the America's 

 oldest cities. For decades they have 

 been the major cause of beach closings 

 and dangerous levels of bacteria in 

 coastal waters They generally work 

 well enough in normal times; sewage 

 and rainwater are treated together and 

 ihen discharged 



During a heavy storm, however, so 

 much water washes into the combined 



system that u is ovcrwneimeo. The 

 treatment centers cannot handle the 

 load and everything — storm water 

 and sewage — floods untreated out the 

 pipe. 



To solve the sewer problem. New 

 York would have to build enormous 

 subterranean tanks to hold waste wa- 

 ter during heavy downpours, and the 

 city Department of Environmental 

 Protection says that could cost several 

 billion dollars. Without them, many 

 beaches in the area will continue to be 

 closed after particularly heavy storms. 

 Every time more than three-quarters 

 ol an inch of ram falls, 500 million 

 gallons of mixed sewage pours into 

 area rivers and harbors, the city says 



A report by the Slate University of 

 New York estimated that sewage over- 

 flows cost New York and New Jersey 

 S3 billion to V billion in losi jobs, lost 

 fishing days and forfeited economic 

 opportunities in the previous decade 



That report was published in 1988. 

 just as the sewers were flushing sy- 

 ringes and other trash from streets and 

 gutters onto the beaches. Still, almost 

 nobody seriously questioned the need 

 f oi an immediate ocean dumping ban. 



