171 



your remporks have been too extensive ; they were very interesting, in- 

 formative, and certainly will be most helpful. 



Mr. Rogers. 



Mr. Rogers. Thank you, sir. 



Mr. Train, I notice that you take pretty much the position the bills 

 have taken generally that certain elements should be permitted all 

 together. My understanding is that the President said there would be 

 no more ocean dumping for Federal agencies. Am I correct or mcor- 

 rect on that? 



Mr. Train. It is the President's policy that Federal agencies prior 

 to the enactment of legislation endeavor, to the extent practicable, to 

 conform to the policy which he has recommended for legislation. Cer- 

 tainly the Federal agencies v/ould be covered by our proposed legis- 

 lation. 



Mr. Rogers. What I am concerned with — we had a problem with 

 the Army where we got into all this nerve gas thing, as you recall, 

 and then we had problems with the Navy in my own State where they 

 dumped acids and oil. Now I find, and I have predicted this would 

 happen, we would have to go service by service to get anything done. 

 Now I find the Air Force is out dumping in California and I am sure 

 from other bases in an attempt that I think will soon kill off part 

 of the water in the ocean there off southern California and that is the 

 Norton Air Force Base. 



They have been dumping chemicals into the ocean via barge. Now 

 they are supposed to dump them 5 to 10 miles off, but if it is good 

 and foggy they say they do it quickly and they even had a problem 

 there where they could not get them to sink so they used rifles to sink 

 the containers and even had one blow up and blow part of a ship out, 

 too, I understand. Now they have stopped the dumping by barges 

 since the President's direction came out, but do jou know what they 

 are now doing? They are now taking it in trucks and just dumping 

 it into the sewerage system and it goes right into the bay. 



Now I think that is a perversion of what the President intended 

 and I would hope that there is some action that could be taken to 

 prevent that. That is probably the largest film depository where they 

 develop a lot of film in Hollywood, so all of these chemicals that are 

 most deadly are dumped right into the sea. In fact, there are some 

 that directly effect cancer. 



Are you aware of this situation ? 



Mr, Train. No; I am not, Mr. Rogers. That is new information 

 to me and I am certainly very glad to have it. I assure you that I will 

 be in touch with the Air Force as soon as this hearing is over to dis- 

 cover what is going on. 



Mr. Rogers. Should they not be filing an impact statement with 

 you if they dump 1.2 million gallons of chemicals, including cyanides, 

 sulfates, hexa chromium, and 94 other chemicals? The truck leaves 

 the base each morning by 7 :30 to 8 :30 and they simply dump into the 

 sewer lines into the bay, and the truck is marked, incidentally, 

 corrosives. 



Mr. Train. In specific answer to your question, Mr. Rogers, from 

 what you describe I would consider these actions to be subject to the 

 National Environmental Policy Act and the subject of environmen- 

 tal impact statements under section 102 ; yes. 



