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and develop site management plans. 



Last year, AAPA worked with the environmental community to support a national 

 sediment remediation program in WRDA '92. However, because of Administration 

 objections to the cost of the program, it was scaled back to one project in the New 

 York/New Jersey area. While the public port community is hopeful that decontamination 

 technology will be developed, research is only in the very early stages and large scale 

 application is not a viable alternative to the management and confined disposal of 

 contaminated materials. 



The 1990 Water Resources Development Act authorized S10 million annually for the 

 Corps to conduct remediation dredging outside navigation channels. However, the local 

 project sponsor would be required to pay 50 percent of the cost, and 100 percent of the 

 disposal costs. Certainly the remediation outside navigation channels is a national concern 

 and should not be the responsibility of local government or port authority, nor should it be 

 the component of our navigation project cost sharing obligations under the Water Resources 

 Development Act. Public ports should not be forced to assume responsibility, either to bear 

 the cost of securing the disposal capacity or to support a wider remediation program. The 

 polluter or discharger that caused the contamination should, wherever possible, pay for the 

 cost of clean up. 



Mr. Chairman, clearly the federal government's overall management of the dredging 

 program -- both the Corps of Engineers' and EPA's -- can be improved. For example, 

 regulatory reviews should be streamlined and resources provided for long-term dredged 

 material disposal planning, for disposal site designation, for more costly beneficial use 

 projects, and for site monitoring projects and disposal sites. These functions will become 

 even more important in the context of any expanded sediment remediation program. AAPA 

 welcomes the opportunity to work with you in these and other areas to help improve the 

 program. 



Ocean Water Disposal Should be Preserved 



Of the approximately 400 million cubic yards of sediments dredged annually, about 

 60 million cubic yards are disposed of at ocean sites regulated under the Marine Protection, 

 Sanctuaries and Research Act; and the remaining 340 million cubic yards are regulated 

 under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. 



There are several disposal alternatives theoretically available for both clean and 

 contaminated sediments: totally upland confined sites or unconfined areas; confined disposal 

 facilities extending from shore into the water or totally surrounded by water; thin layer 

 disposal over wide areas; open water placement in bays, rivers and estuaries; or, in the 

 ocean. All disposal alternatives can potentially have some adverse environmental impacts, 

 but these impacts can be limited or eliminated with good management practices. Some 

 alternatives obviously should not be used for highly contaminated sediments. On the other 



