156 



Mr. Weldon. Thank you, Dr. Grassle, for your excellent state- 

 ment. 

 Ms. Beth Millemann, welcome. The floor is yours. 



STATEMENT OF BETH MILLEMA>fN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 

 COAST ALLIANCE 



Ms. Millemann. Thank you. I would like to thank you for stay- 

 ing for the very bitter end of this hearing. It has been many hours 

 and very instructive for all of us who were here. 



I must comment that there is a certain schizophrenia inherent 

 in having the first three panels and then this panel. The informa- 

 tion that was raised in the previous panels raised the most sober- 

 ing and disturbing of conclusions about what a willy-nilly approach 

 to disposing of wastes in the ocean can bring 10 years and 15 years 

 later after the fact, and that we are having a panel talking about 

 introducing new wastes into the deep ocean is personally very dis- 

 turbing to me, particularly in light of the very sobering information 

 that was presented earlier. 



I am presenting testimony today on behalf of the Coast Alliance 

 and also 35 other environmental groups and sports and commercial 

 fishing organizations and water recreation groups. We are very 

 pleased to be here. 



I wanted to raise essentially five different issues that our groups 

 have concerns over beginning deep ocean dumping. The first deals 

 with the fact, as Dr. Grassle has raised before, that we are getting 

 to learn more and more about the deep ocean and the fact that, as 

 you stated, it is not a dead zone, that there is a variety of life. 



Beginning a waste disposal practice in an area that we are just 

 now learning about its variety and abundancy seems to me pre- 

 cisely the wrong direction to go, and certainly the direction of 

 waste disposal policies in this country vis-a-vis the ocean has been 

 precisely the opposite direction. It has been to get out of the ocean, 

 not to go back to the ocean for additional disposal. 



The passage of the Ocean Dumping Ban Act in 1988 and the re- 

 cent changes to the London Convention in 1993 are only two exam- 

 ples of the fact that the public does not support ocean dumping of 

 wastes. When the public becomes sufficiently concerned about the 

 quality of ocean waters, it reacts very violently. The history of the 

 ocean is not one of half-measures. When the public becomes suffi- 

 ciently concerned, activities dumping in the ocean are banned. I 

 think that any movement forward toward introducing a new deep 

 ocean dumping regime will be met with the most hostile of public 

 responses. 



Regarding the ban, the materials that are discussed in the Naval 

 Research Lab report of January this year contemplate the disposal 

 of dredge materials but also incinerator ash and also sewage sludge 

 in the ocean. The Ocean Dumping Ban Act banned the disposal of 

 sewage sludge and industrial wastes in the oceans. It also banned 

 the incineration of wastes at sea. It also banned the transportation 

 of those wastes across U.S. waters for purposes of dumping. 



The London Convention also bans the disposal of industrial 

 wastes in the ocean, and there is certainly a good deal of conversa- 

 tion going on now about potentially expanding that ban to sewage 

 sludge dumping. So the elements that are discussed in the Naval 



