101 
also work on our site-designation criteria, our monitoring strategy 
requirements in the permits, the bioassay procedures and test pro- 
cedures, along with the reevaluation of the land and air. 
We are putting together a schedule for completion this year or 
the first part of next year with public input and also scientific 
input through the Science Advisory Board to advise us on structur- 
ing the regulations to be able to put out something in a proposal 
later this summer, so we will be able to structure a management 
program which will adequately protect the ocean, land, and air. 
Mr. Stupps. Well, that is a remarkable sentence. I almost forgot 
my question. Are you or are you not in the process of drafting new 
regulations? 
Ms. Hurp. We have put together some drafts, yes. There are a 
number of issues which we have identified, and we will work with 
people for input on how to resolve those issues. 
Mr. Stupps. Well, that is what we do in this Government, as you 
know. 
Ms. Hurp. Yes. 
Mr. Stupps. What I want to know is whether you are revising 
the regs? Are you about to come up with new draft proposed regu- 
lations? If so, what is the timeframe? 
Ms. Hurp. We are working on what the schedule is going to be. 
Mr. Stupps. We are working on what the schedule is? 
Ms. Hurp. Yes. 
Mr. Stupps. So you do not have a schedule. You don’t know 
when regs are going to be published, is that correct? Anyway, it is 
not in the next few weeks. Is that correct? 
Ms. Hupp. It is not the next few weeks. 
Mr. Stupps. I see. Well, that is reassuring. 
Let me read you another excerpt from this article to which I 
would like to have you respond. 
It says, “These rules may soon be relaxed’’—the current regula- 
tions, that is, that go back to 1977, as you know. “According to an 
early draft of the proposed revisions’—that may be what you 
termed a “concept paper’. I am not sure—‘“the new rules will in- 
corporate and present a major shift in EPA ocean-dumping policy 
toward making ocean dumping a viable option for waste disposal. 
The revisions, according to one EPA official who asked to remain 
anonymous, are based on the principle that ocean dumping, like 
other actions that affect the environment, should be governed by 
cost-benefit analysis,” an approach that the Reagan administration 
has been trying to incorporate into environmental policymaking as 
we have all noticed. “This approach can now be applied to ocean 
dumping, the anonymous EPA official argued, because there is suf- 
ficient scientific understanding of the impact of many pollutants on 
the marine environment to assess the hazards of ocean dumping. 
Since the Ocean Dumping Act was passed, he said, we now know 
more about what the oceans can assimilate.” 
Can I have your response to that quotation? 
Ms. Hurp. I believe in our testimony this morning, we did ad- 
dress the fact that in certain circumstances ocean disposal is an 
option and can assimilate particular domestic type wastes and dif- 
ferent types of dredge materials. 
