of baseline data on the areas and volumes of estuaries and bays. EPA 

 has also inaugurated a three-phase program leading to a national 

 coastal monitoring network. The initial phases of defining re- 

 quirements and available resources will be followed by the 

 development of sampling and surveillance programs for specific 

 coastal areas and of a national coastal monitoring network plan. 



Other EPA environmental studies are concerned with the effects of 

 pollutants on marine fish and wildlife and the fate of pollutants in 

 the marine environment generally. Included are investigations of the 

 movement of heavy metals in estuarine and coastal locations, 

 mathematical modeling to predict time-space distribution of waste 

 discharges from barges and outfalls, and studies of the distribution 

 of viruses, metals, and chlorinated hydrocarbons in waters and 

 sediments of selected coastal areas. A related effort is the 

 investigation, assessment, and modeling of local circulation patterns 

 and other distributive forces at coastal locations, with a principal 

 focus on the heavily used New York Bight ocean disposal sites. 



Important accomplishments were realized in the past year in 

 implementation of the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries 

 Act of 1972. In the New York Bight region, EPA announced that all 

 dumping at the existing sewage sludge disposal site south of Long 

 Island should end by July of 1976. A new site was to be selected 

 further offshore, with environmental surveys and assessments to be 

 made by NOAA's New York Bight MESAproject and by commercial 

 contract. In the Gulf of Mexico, seven existing permits were 

 decreased to two, and the volume of wastes dumped into Gulf water 

 was reduced from 1.4 million tons in 1973 to 950,000 tons in 1974, 

 with further reductions anticipated in 1975. The USCG is developing 

 new surveillance tools to aid in monitoring dumping activities, and 

 COE initiated research on offshore dredge spoil sites as part of its 

 long-term dredge-spoil research program. 



EPA and NOAA scientists participated in a test of at-sea 

 incineration of chemical wastes as an alternative to dumping at sea. 

 The test was held off Galveston in the fall of 1974. It appears that this 

 method of disposal is a feasible one, and plans are being formulated 

 to dispose of Air Force chemicals in the Pacific in a similar fashion. 



NOAA conducted a baseline evaluation of a deepwater disposal 

 site in May 1974. It was found that the wastes dumped — primarily 

 industrial wastes from the New York and New Jersey area — seem to 

 disperse rapidly. Preliminary findings indicated that little, if any, 

 material appears to reach the bottom at the specific site itself. 

 However, data from this project are still being analyzed. As a 

 prototype dump-site characterization, this project will assist in 

 developing equipment and techniques for use in the future. Among 

 the results of such work are expected to be recommendations on 



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