507 



Mr. GoLiCH. Well, I might also point out, which you will read in 

 there, that basically — this sounds a little outrageous, but in my 

 opinion I'm probably one of the world's experts on the question of 

 nuclear waste management. I spent 4 solid years studying this 

 subject, and there's a million angles to it that are just beginning to 

 come out now. 



I would really like you to consider the fact that I would like to 

 make myself available as a consultant to this whole problem here. 

 I am willing and able to do that. 



Mr. Studds. We're going to make your paper also available to 

 the relevant agencies. 



It is exceptionally difficult to appear outrageous in Washington, 

 let me reassure you. 



Thank you very much. 



Mr. GoLiCH. Thank you. 



Mr. Studds. The subcommittee stands adjourned. 



[The following was received for the record:] 



Prepared Statement of Hon. John L. Burton, a Representative in Congress 

 From the State of California 



Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, I would like to commend you for 

 taking the time to hold a hearing on the important subject of radioactive waste 

 disposal in the oceans. The purpose of your hearing, as I understand it, is to look 

 ahead to the possibility that our oceans could be used as sites for the disposal of 

 radioactive waste materials. 



This issue is of special significance to me because the 5th Congressional District of 

 California is on the Pacific Ocean and only 50 miles from the Farallon Islands 

 dumping site which served as one of the earliest sites for low level wastes placed in 

 the Pacific between World War II and 1970. 



I know you are aware that our distinguished colleague. Congressman Moffett, 

 kindly complied with my request to bring his Subcommittee on Environment, 

 Energy and Natural Resources to San Francisco for hearings this past October on 

 the past practice of radioactive dumping at the Farallons. 



The people I represent in the San Francisco Bay Area are justifiably concerned 

 that these practices which the U.S. permitted under the Atomic Energy Commission 

 may have resulted in serious contamination of the ocean waters and sea life. 

 Moreover, I think that they are outraged by the casual manner in which the 

 government conducted this disposal program, leaving behind a few, vague records 

 about what was dumped, how much and where. 



The fact is, we cannot even get a comfortable handle on what the federal govern- 

 ment has allowed in the past in the way of radioactive disposals that occurred in 

 our oceans. If we do not even have a good grasp now, and it has been ten years since 

 the U.S. permitted low level ocean dumping, I hardly think it is wise to be consider- 

 ing high level radioactive disposal in the ocean unless the technology of safe 

 containment is fully developed and tested. 



My main concern is that scientists are becoming too eager to plunge ahead on 

 pursuing ocean disposal of high level wastes, which could include nuclear fuel rod 

 assemblies. I think that this is dangerously premature because we don't have any 

 kind of satisfactory account of past disposals, and those were relatively low level in 

 comparison. 



Our previous experience with nuclear waste disposal in this country has not given 

 me much confidence in the government's ability to safely allow ocean disposals in 

 the future without a major overhaul of policy and without major technological 

 advancements. We have learned through the San Francisco hearings that the En- 

 vieonmental Protection Agency has hardly been able to do more than scratch the 

 surface. Their surveys have only located a small percentage of the 55-gallon drums 

 and they report that many were broken and leaking into the ocean. 



According to the EPA, the records of ocean dumping activities by the Atomic 

 Energy Commission only provide approximate coordinates of the dumping location, 

 and they do not indicate the specific content, and neither the content of the 

 containers not the precise dumping locations can be verified. Furthermore, records 

 of military operations and government contractors might exist but are not available. 



