551 



special regulations for the incineration at sea of hazardous chemicals 

 and the adoption of technical guidelines for such operations is a good 

 illustration of how a creative use of such international organizational 

 channels might work. 



The applicability of the Convention to incineration at sea was deter- 

 mined through amendments which were adopted through the"^"speedy amendment" 

 provisions of the Convention applicable to amendments of the Annexes. 



Art. XV (2) . The amendment and accompanying material were prepared by 



37 38 



special consultative groups, including ad hoc scientific committees, 



which met under the auspices of IMCO, the secretariat for the Convention. 



The amendment themselves and the other material were adopted by the parties 



39 

 to the Convention at their regular consultative meetings. 



Incineration at sea of toxic substances, primarily halogenated hydro- 



Ccirbons, had been carried out by several European nations both prior to the 



issued special permits for incineration operations on three occasions, 

 twice for chlorinated hydrocarbon wastes stored in Mississippi (which were 

 burned at a site in the Gulf of Mexico) and once for the incineration of 

 Agent Orange, a notorious Vietnam-era herbicide contaminated with extremely 

 toxic dioxm, for which incineration was authorized at a site in the Pacific. 

 For a number of reasons, the application of the Convention to incineration 

 operations was not clear. First, such disposal may not be "disposal at- 

 sea" at all, since effective incineration at sea may not lead to measurable 

 changes in the marine environment at the incineration site. Second, although 

 the substances for which incineration at sea would be conducted would likely 

 include substances whose diomping is prohibited by Annex I of the Convention, 



