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Questions and Answers for the Record 



Hearing Before House MM&F-OGM&OCS on 30 March 1993 



Ocean Disposal of Contaminated Dredge Material 



Question from Mr. Weldon - In your written testimony, you state 

 that over 95 percent of the material from the vast majority of 

 permitted dredging, is classified as uncontaminated. If this is 

 the case, how much of a problem does the other 5 percent pose to 

 our harbors? Do you feel that this is a growing problem? 



ANSWER Mr. Rees: The degree of impact depends upon the state or 

 region of the country. Each state has a different set of water 

 guality standards that must be met. If the state should 

 arbitrarily change those standards, the Corps would be compelled 

 to comply for both Federal projects and regulated activities. 

 You should be aware that we reserve the prerogative of whether to 

 budget for disposal activities where we find that the costs of 

 complying with State imposed criteria are not justified. 

 Additionally, as our analytical procedures improve, we are able 

 to measure smaller guantities of substances. Knowing that very 

 small guantities of a chemical compound exists in a sediment does 

 not necessarily mean that the substance will be harmful to the 

 aguatic environment or humans. It also does not mean that the 

 substance will be harmless if either left alone or dredged. We 

 are often faced with having to make regulatory decisions with 

 analytical data that has not had the benefit of the appropriate 

 and often necessary research and development that provides a 

 foundation for interpretation into the project decision process. 



As we continue to make advances in identification and 

 guantif ication of contaminants in sediments, we can expect more 



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