341 



Mr. Ktkos. I certainly sympathize with the last point you made, 

 about the need to expedite the dredging. But the facts presented to this 

 committee indicate that dredge spoils account for 60 percent of the 

 waste of all ocean dumping, and that 34 percent of all the dredged 

 spoils are already contaminated. 



So, somewhere we have to work a line between the need to get the 

 dredging done, to get the projects started, and the need to assure 

 everyone that the dredge spoils that are located somewhere else will 

 not pollute. I think that is the problem that this committee is going to 

 face. 



Thank you very much. 



Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. DiNGELL. Thank you. 



Mr. Pelly? Thank you. 



Mr. Pellt. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Langlois, I have the port of Seattle in my district. I don't have 

 the problems obviously of those ports that have to dredge, to keep their 

 chamiels open, so that the large ships with greater draft can continue 

 to utilize the ports and port facilities. However, I have been thinking 

 as you have testified and I wonder if you have done any research as to 

 the changes which have taken place in our merchant marine. 



In other words, we are going to have a vastly different tyjpe of ship 

 now, one that loads and unloads very quickly with containers and 

 moves out, but further than that the new Lash type of ship in which 

 a whole barge is floated downstream or taken from industrial areas 

 where it does not require deep draft, and then loaded entirely onto a 

 ship, one after the other. This might mean that many areas that have 

 had to be channeled in the past will not have to be channeled under 

 this new type of operation. The barge will go in shallow waters and 

 will be floated right up on board the new type of ship. 



Mr. Langlois. You have asked if we have put any time and study 

 on it; and my answer is yes, we certainly have. I am sure you have 

 seen the vessels themselves or at least the plans. These vessels are 

 deep-draft vessels. That is, they are down to 35, close to 40 feet. The 

 primary purpose of these vessels is to reduce in-port time and also to 

 bring cargo that was upriver down to the point of loading. So that 

 even the smaller conventional steamers never went up the river for 

 most of the cargo that the Sea Bees and Lash vessels are going to 

 pick up. 



So I strongly feel if we are going to protect our ports for these ves- 

 sels and these vessels are here and I think they are here to stay, in 

 great numbers — ^then we must make certain tlaat we have existing 

 channels and that another very important issue is that we have the 

 proper maintenance of these channels. That provides for maintenance 

 dredging. Again, when you do maintenance dredging, you have to have 

 your permit. In some of our port areas vessels are grounded because of 

 silting, and therefore the dredging must be accomplished in order to 

 continue the traffic. With the Lash and the Sea Bee ships, they are 

 drawing more water than the steamers you and I knew about in World 

 War II. 



Mr. Pellt. Yes; but there will be fewer ships coming into Port- 

 land with the Lash type of vessel, because they are moving faster and 



