175 



with respect to some of the things that I mentioned in my testi- 

 mony. There are certainly alternative approaches. Beth Millemann 

 mentioned beneficial use. Certainly, source reduction and taking a 

 systems engineering approach to contaminated sediments in our 

 harbors is what is needed, considering the problem in its entirety. 

 I think isolating the problem as an engineering issue somewhat 

 begs the question. 



Mr. Weldon. And Ms. Millemann. 



Ms. Millemann. I would agree with that. I would also say that, 

 as we know, this is a time of very scarce Federal funds and what 

 I would suggest instead of this kind of a completely unproven and 

 unnecessary project would be to continue congressional support for 

 the program that was begun in 1987, which is seeking to find a so- 

 lution to the problem of contaminated sediments to begin with, 

 which is ways to render those sediments safe enough to be reused 

 or to be disposed of safely. That project has been joined by a project 

 that Mr. Pallone has long championed to test different technologies 

 in the New York-New Jersey Harbor area to find ways to clean 

 those sediments up. 



I would also add that several of the ports, as Dr. Grassle pointed 

 out also, including the Port of New York-New Jersey, are taking 

 steps to create ways to deal with contaminated sediment issues 

 that they face now. The Port of New York-New Jersey is talking 

 about digging an underwater pit for storage of contaminated sedi- 

 ments. The Port of Boston is doing the same thing for its sediment 

 contamination issue. The Ports of Seattle and Tacoma are doing 

 upland disposal and on-site disposal. So the ports are trying to deal 

 with this as well, too, and that is the prudent course. 



Mr. Weldon. What agency is heading up that program? 



Ms. Millemann. The decontamination projects that were created 

 in 1987 were amendments to the Clean Water Act that the EPA 

 runs 



Mr. Weldon. So the EPA is running it? 



Ms. Millemann [continuing]. Through the Great Lakes National 

 Program Office. The project that Mr. Pallone has championed is 

 run jointly by the Army Corps of Engineers ajid the EPA and it 

 was authorized through the Water Resources Development Act of 

 1990. 



Mr. Weldon. Thank you. 



Mr. Kennedy. 



Mr. Kennedy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Weldon. Let me thank you for sticking through this mara- 

 thon landmark hearing. You have been here from the beginning 

 and we appreciate that. Thank you. 



Mr. Kennedy. Not at all. It has been a real education. I look for- 

 ward to working with my new colleague, Congressman Pallone, and 

 furthering his endeavors on the committee as a recent appointee of 

 the Natural Resources Committee. I look forward to working with 

 some of the panel members as we discuss this issue going forward. 



I cannot help but just immediately be struck by the importance 

 of this issue economically. I mean, you can just see all of our land- 

 based dump sites are getting to be such problems, and the cost of 

 transporting waste across State lines is another issue altogether. 

 You can only begin to imagine why this is now being debated in 



