103 



Mr. Weldon. Thank you, Admiral. 

 Dr. Brass. 



STATEMENT OF DR, GARRETT W. BRASS, DIRECTOR, ARCTIC 

 RESEARCH COMMISSION 



Dr. Brass. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity. I did 

 submit written testimony, which you have already agreed to enter 

 into the record. 



With me is Mr. Greorge Newton, who is a member of the Commis- 

 sion and is here to answer any questions you may have on the sci- 

 entific ice experiment with the Navy nuclear submarine that I will 

 mention. 



Mr. Weldon. Welcome. 



Dr. Brass. It is not necessary to elaborate on the testimony al- 

 ready given here on the extent of the threat of contamination of the 

 Arctic, especially by emissions from the former Soviet Union. Envi- 

 ronmental concerns were of a pretty low priority in the former So- 

 viet Union and many potential contaminants are widespread and 

 either uncontained or only partially and insecurely stored. 



The United States has been fortunate. The reactor accident at 

 Chernobyl occurred just a few short weeks after the annual dissipa- 

 tion of the stable Arctic haze layer, which would have trapped air- 

 borne contaminants and transported substantial amounts of radio- 

 active byproducts of the accident to the United States. 



Similarly, the Komi oil spill occurred during winter when the riv- 

 ers and streams were frozen and the temperatures so low that the 

 oil did not flow easily. A summertime spill, particularly in one of 

 the oil fields closer to the seas and/or near a large and unfrozen 

 river would probably not have been contained, much less cleaned 

 up, and serious pollution of the Arctic Ocean and transport to our 

 shores would probably have been the result. 



One indication of the ongoing risk that we suffer is that in the 

 former Soviet Union, an amount of oil greater than the amount 

 spilled from the Exxon Valdez is spilled every day. 



On page 21 of the Commission's goals report, the Commission 

 recommended that the Interagency Arctic Research and Policy 

 Committee's Arctic Contaminants Initiative be fully funded. This 

 plan is included in one form in the biennial Arctic Research of the 

 United States Interagency Arctic Research Plan and in a more de- 

 tailed way in the blue-covered plan which I also submitted to your 

 office. 



This program envisions an attack on four key classes of contami- 

 nants: Persistent organic compounds, trace and heavy metals, 

 radionuclides, and chronic hydrocarbon contamination. The pro- 

 gram is based on an integrated, comprehensive assessment includ- 

 ing data and information management, data rescue and synthesis, 

 observations, process-oriented research, model development, and 

 impact analysis and determination of risk. 



Although constructed by lARPC to meet the Nation's needs and 

 approved by the Office of the President when the biennial revision 

 of the plan was approved, the plan is not included in the budget 

 request nor is it, as far as I can tell, included in any way in con- 

 gressional budget initiatives. The Office of Naval Research's Arctic 

 Nuclear Waste Assessment Program has not been funded this year 



