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debris, solid waste, explosive chemical munitions, radioactive wastes^ 

 and miscellaneous materials. 



There are at least 250 known official and unofficial disposal sites off 

 U.S. coasts. Half of the ocean dmnpmg grounds are located off the 

 Atlantic coast while the other half is evenly divided between the gulf 

 and Pacific coasts. A large area of the Atlantic Ocean off XewYork 

 Harbor has become an ecological desert as a result. of the dumping of 

 sewage sludge in that location for 40 years. 



Aside from areas such as that off New York Harbor wliich have 

 been used continuously for the dumping of deposition by outfall of 

 sewage and other toxic material, there have been hundreds of other 

 incidents of spillage of hazardous material. A very thorough study 

 recently compiled by the Coast Guard listed 157 separate instances 

 of reported spillages of dangerous or hazardous materials in the past 

 2 years. 



Decisions made by municipalities and industries in the next few 

 years could lead to dramatic increases in the level of dumping. Be- 

 cause the capacity of land-based disposed sites is rapidly being ex- 

 hausted in some coastal cities, communities are looking to the ocean 

 as a diunping ground for their wastes. 



Forcecl with higher water quality standards, the industries may 

 also look to the ocean for disposal. The result could be a massive in- 

 crease in the already growing level of ocean dumping. 



It is largely the responsibility of the Federal Government to halt 

 and reverse the environmental deterioration taking place along coastal 

 areas, and particularly those adjacent to large urban centers. How- 

 ever, the Federal Government presently lacks sufficient authority and 

 some of the Federal roles are overlapping with no clear-cut idea as to 

 the lead agency responsibility. It was this tangled bureaucratic web 

 that impelled me to search for a more comprehensive approach that 

 includes specific guidelines. 



Let's look at the present system. Ocean dimiping in territorial wa- 

 ters is not "regulated" under the Refuse Act of 1899, the 1888 Super- 

 visory AcL the 1905 River and Harbors Act, and the Federal Water 

 Pollution Control Act of 1965, as amended. The first tliree acts are ad- 

 ministered bv the Corps of Engineers and the Water Quality Act by 

 FWQA which is now a part of the Environmental Protection Agency. 



Beyond the territorial sea, authority to enforce pollution laws ap- 

 plicable to U.S. nationals is assigned to the Coast Guard. Apparently, 

 the authority applies only to vessels carrying oil. No Federal agency 

 has authority to completely regulate or control dumpmg beyond the 

 territorial sea. Applications to the Corps of Engineers for disposal 

 of wastes at sea are hardly ever denied beyond the 3-mile limit even 

 when public health groups object, because of a lack of explicit regula- 

 tions and guidelines. 



A recent study for the Bureau of Solid Waste Management con- 

 cluded : 



Althougli there are many Federal, State, and local agencies involved in one 

 way or another with the disposal of wastes from barges and ships in any one 

 city, rarely did more than one of these agencies have a comprehensive picture 

 of the total activities of this city. This lack of effective data management ap- 

 pears to be due primarily to both a lack of communication between agencies 



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