352 



During the past month, discussions about future monitoring and 

 monitoring strategies have intensified. Both NOAA and EPA are 

 committed to developing a monitoring strategy, and high priority is 

 being given to the development of a concise, mutually agreeable, 

 statement of purposes and costs for the ocean monitoring of radio- 

 active materials. The legislative basis for these efforts is the Ocean 

 Dumping Act where the responsibilities of EPA and NOAA are 

 described in title I and title II, respectively. In areas where we 

 don't have resources, we will seek more through our normal budge- 

 tary process. 



An effort of this magnitude will require the assistance of other 

 agencies as well. Federal agencies, such as the Food and Drug 

 Administration, the Department of Energy (DOE), and the Nuclear 

 Regulatory Commission (NRC), and States, such as California and 

 perhaps Massachusetts, Maryland, and Delaware, would likely 

 have an interest. At this time, the NRC and DOE are providing us 

 with their records on past dumping operations and locations to 

 assess whether other sites, in addition to the sites we have already 

 surveyed, may have substantial quantities of radioactive waste. We 

 have also asked the Department of Defense to determine whether 

 it has additional information. 



INTERNATIONAL MONITORING 



In addition to our work on U.S. dumpsite monitoring, we have 

 for some years encouraged and are participating in the develop- 

 ment of an international ocean dumpsite monitoring plan. 



You have heard it described earlier today. 



An effort to develop a plan was initiated by the International 

 Atomic Energy Agency in 1978 pursuant to its responsibilities 

 under the London Dumping Convention. In addition, the Interna- 

 tional Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development 

 (OECD) established an international consultation and surveillance 

 mechanism for sea dumping of radioactive waste to provide guid- 

 ance to its member countries. The Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) 

 of the OECD administers this consultation and surveillance mecha- 

 nism for the dumping by some European nations of low-level 

 nuclear waste into a site in the Northeast Atlantic. 



In addition to participating in the development of the interna- 

 tional monitoring plan for the Northeast Atlantic dumpsite, we 

 have agreed to contribute to its implementation. At present, we are 

 waiting to see what gaps in technical expertise may be identified so 

 that we might recommend U.S. participants or EPA technical as- 

 sistance where most needed. Participation in this monitoring activ- 

 ity will assist us by supplying valuable information about an ac- 

 tively used site, at minimum cost, to expand our data base for 

 evaluating this sea disposal option for the United States. 



CONCLUSIONS 



EPA has a program for achieving several objectives by 1985. 

 They are as follows: 



One, evaluation of ocean dumping as an option for disposal of 

 low-level radioactive waste. 



