162 



The Oceans Are Rich But The Country Is Not 



Our knowledge of the deep ocean environment has grown since 1992, as has the nation's 

 ddbt. This Congress is focusing enormous attention on the budget and major financial problems 

 facing the nation. A Summary Engineering Report prepared for the Naval Research Laboratory 

 in January 1995 estimates that operating one barge for deep ocean dumping activities would cost 

 $15 million per year, while another of the proposed ships would cost $32 million a year to 

 operate. Presumably, several barges and ships will be needed to dispose of the 20 million metric 

 tons of sediments discussed in the rqx>rt, as 800 trips from port to dumpsite and back to port 

 again will be needed to dump all that mud. The cost of retrofitting or building these barges and 

 operating them could easily be in the hundreds of millions of dollars per year. In comparison, 

 the program for developing technologies to decontaminate dredged sediments costs $5 million 

 a year. 



The government would be called on to be a major fmancial player in the development 

 of the dumping industries, shouldering the costs of modelling, testing, designing, building 

 prototypes, and finalizing the technologies for commercial development ~ and for profit-making 

 by the private companies once the government has paid to research and develop the machines. 

 Instead of spending precious tax dollars on developing new ways to dump polluted waste in the 

 ocean - a practice which is illegal and strongly opposed by the public - the Federal government 

 should continue its extremely modest investment in technologies that can clean up toxic 

 materials, not just get them "out of sight and out of mind." 



The Naval Research Lab's Report was conducted over the strong objections of Senator 

 Frank Lautenberg who urged in 1993 that the study be dropped because of "scarce federal 

 resources. " He also pointed to the improvement of fisheries and water quality with the end of 

 sewage sludge dumping off the Jersey shore. Representative Gerry Studds also cautioned the 

 Dqiartment of Defense to abide by the Ocean Dumping Ban Act, which makes it unlawful to 

 dump, or transport for the purpose of dumping, sewage sludge or industrial waste. 



The Summary Engineering Report 



The Summary Engineering Report for Abyssal Plains Waste Isolation Projea was 

 completed in January 199S for the Navy. It is one of the more recent documents proposing deq> 

 ocean dumping. It is useful to examine what this newest document prqwses. 



In a nutshell, the Rqwrt focusses on deep ocean dumping of industrial waste in the form 

 of incinerator ash, sewage sludge and contaminated dredged sediments. These materials cannot 

 be legally ocean dumped. In addition to being ill^, any new ocean dumping activities would 

 be extremely unpopular. The public has spokai out forcefully and repeatedly against ocean 

 dumping of pollutants, including shore touiisra interests, water recreation businesses, fishermen 

 and conservationists. 



