130 



TESTIMONY OF 



PHILIP J. VALENT 



ASSOCIATE SUPERINTENDENT, MARINE GEOSCIENCES DIVISION, NAVAL 



RESEARCH LABORATORY, STENNIS SPACE CENTER, MS 



before the 



NATIONAL SECURITY SUBCOMMITTEE ON 



MILITARY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 



and the 



RESOURCES SUBCOMMITTEE ON FISHERIES, WILDLIFE AND OCEANS 



6 December 1995 



Messrs. Chainnen and Members of the Subcommittees: My name is Philip Valent. I am 

 Associate Superintendent of the Marine Geosciences Division, Naval Research Laboratory, 

 Stennis Space Center, Mississippi. I submit this, written statement, which I will stmmiarize 

 orally, for inclusion in the hearing record. 



In addition to my administrative duties, I am also Project Manager and Principal Investigator for 

 a project tasked to the Department of Defense (DoD) in the FY93 Appropriations Bill to "...study 

 the advantages, disadvantages, and economic viabihty of storing industrial waste in the abyssal 

 plains of the ocean floor" (see Figure 1). I thank you for this opportunity to report to you the 

 results, conclusions, and recommendations of that project. 



Background 



The US has had to rely largely on land-based waste management alternatives since the cessation 

 of ocean disposal of wastes with enactment of the Ocean Dumping Ban Act of 1988. 

 Remediation of contaminated wastes, though technically feasible, is very costly; and, therefore, 

 land disposal is experiencing increased use. 



Implementing an environmentally sound and economically viable program for remediation of 

 highly contaminated bottom sediments, and obtainmg regulatory and public approval of such 

 action, poses a particularly vexing problem. Inaction in remediation of these highly 

 contaminated sediments from shipping berths, turning basins, and navigation channels, because 

 of concern over the environmental impact of removing these sediments by present alternatives, is 

 compelling maritime commerce to avoid affected US ports (Haggerty 1993). 



In introducing our project report, let me acknowledge the recent prior work on the topic of waste 

 isolation on the abyssal seafloor. Two workshops sponsored by the Sloan Foundation were 

 conducted at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), 7-10 January 1991, and 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 12-14 June 1991, to examine "the potential 

 benefits and problems of an 'industrial scale' experiment extending over a period of 10 or so 

 years..." involving "...the delivery of from one to a few million tons per year of waste to the deep 



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