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determine whether those conditions are satisfied. 



A. Are Dump Sites managed to prevent unreasonable degradation? 



According to the- ACOE, contaminated dredged materials are presently 

 managed in three general regions. The Puget Sound, the New England region 

 and the New York Bight and Long Island Sound. These are the areas that must 

 be focused upon to gain an understanding of how effective the ocean disposal 

 program has been in preventing unreasonable degradation. 



The Mud Dump Site, located six miles off the New Jersey coast within the 

 New York Bight Apex, is a good case study of whether or not the ocean disposal 

 program has been successfully implemented to allow for management of 

 contaminated dredged materials in the ocean environment so as to prevent 

 unreasonable degradation. 



Dredged materials from the naturally shallow New York Harbor have been 

 deposited within the Harbor and the New York Bight Apex for over a hundred 

 years. In 1977, EPA designated the Mud Dump Site to receive dredged materials 

 that met ocean dumping criteria and that received ACOE permits. Currently, 

 about 55% of the Site has been "filled" and the site is expected to fill up by the 

 late 1990s, upon which time a new site must be designated by the U.S. EPA. 



1. The Mud Dump Site as a case study of contaminated dredged material 

 management 



a. Biological monitoring at The Mud Dump Site is lacking 



EPA is responsible for managing ocean disposal sites 3 . The ocean 

 dumping regulations require that management includes "developing and 

 maintaining effective ambient monitoring programs for the site 4 ." Impacts at the 

 disposal sites must be evaluated periodically and reports submitted as necessary 

 with Annual Reports to Congress 5 . The regulations 6 also detail how baseline and 



■ 40 CFR 228.3 (b) -- Disposal site management responsibilities 



4 40 CFR 228.3(a) -- Disposal site management responsibilities 



'40 CFR 228.10 -- Evaluating disposal impact 



^40 CFR 228.13 -- Guidelines for ocean disposal site baseline or trend 

 assessment surveys under Section 102 of the MPRSA. 



