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Captain SWANSON. We have certainly found the viruses in some 
organisms as is reported here with the Philadelphia dump site. 
Mr. HuGHEs. So we can assume that some of those organisms go 
outside of this area and perhaps are picked up by our commercial 
fishermen? 
Captain SwANSON. That is correct. Some of the commercially 
available fish pass through the area and do accumulate certain 
contaminants. 
Mr. HuGuHEs. I see, thank you. I see my time is up. 
Before I yield back my time, however, I just want to express my 
concern, for the record, over the zero funding for much of your 
monitoring. I just think it is absolutely crazy at a time when we 
are going to see significant increases in applications for permits to 
dump in the ocean, to stop monitoring, to cut back in research and 
I also have great concerns, as you know, Dr. Byrne, over the trans- 
fer of any of the personnel in a massive program to Washington. 
Dr. ByrNE. May I comment on that, sir? As a result of our earli- 
er discussions we have put a hold on that situation. We are in the 
process of very careful analysis of our entire approach to the loca- 
tion of personnel with respect to the needs on the west coast and 
the east coast, and I suspect we will be able to report a decision to 
you probably within a day or so. 
Mr. HuGues. Thank you. I congratulate you on at least being 
willing to take another hard look at what was, I think, just a tenta- 
tive decision. I think that once you get into it in more depth and 
given the facts as they now exist with regard to increasing ocean 
dumping, hopefully, you will see that it is more important for us to 
keep those scientists here in the Northeast. 
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 
Mr. D’Amours. Thank you, Mr. Hughes. 
General Gay, as you know, the draft amendments which you 
have seen, propose that there will be no further dumping in the 
bight after 3 years. How much time do you think you would need 
to find alternatives to dredged material dumping in the New York 
Bight Apex? 
General Gay. I would like to ask Colonel Smith, who is involved 
in the study of finding those alternatives, to respond to that. 
Colonel SmitH. Our research, sir, is concentrated on evaluating 
all of the alternatives. We may conclude as a result of our studies 
that there is not a viable alternative to some continued ocean 
dumping. I am not, at this point, confident—— 
Mr. D’Amours. My question was not clear. I meant ocean alter- 
natives to the Bight. 
Colonel Smitu. Our research will be completed, as I say, in 1985. 
I think then we will have the information available to evaluate all 
of the alternatives. At the present time, EPA is involved in evalu- 
ating the alternative ocean dumping sites that might be available 
in the New York Harbor area. 
Mr. D’Amours. How much time do you think it would take to 
have these sites designated? 
Colonel SmitH. We are talking about alternative ocean dumping 
sites, sir, and I would have to defer to EPA. 
Mr. D’Amours. All right. 
