Issues o 



tal 



in the Gulf of the Farallones 



Since the mid- 1800' s, when the California Gold Rush first brought frantic development 

 to the San Francisco Bay region, the waters of the bay and of the Gulf of the Farallones, 

 beyond the Golden Gate, have been used to dispose ofmanmade waste. Perhaps of 

 greatest concern are thousands of barrels of low-level radioactive waste dumped in the 

 gulf during several decades following the Second World War. To evaluate the hazard 

 from radioactivity to the marine environment, including increasingly important fisheries, 

 scientists have begun the search for containers of radioactive waste on the sea floor 

 of the gulf. 



Another issue is the need to find suitable places in the gulf to dump material dredged 

 from shipping channels in San Francisco Bay. Studies of the sea floor in the gulf have 

 already enabled the Environmental Protection Agency to designate the Nation's first 

 deep-ocean disposal site for dredge spoils. 



