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Mr. Carney. Dr. Byrne, do you believe—I should not say, “Do 
you believe’”—would you like to comment on the New York Bight? 
The question that was asked of EPA—if it will reach a point where 
it might be irreversible, no matter what you do. If you stop dump- 
ing in the New York Bight, you are not going to change it at all. 
You cannot recover. Would you like to render your opinion on 
that? Do you think it is at a point where it might be irreversible? 
Do you think it could get to a point, if it is not, that it might be 
irreversible? 
Dr. Byrne. Again, difficult question to answer. I suspect that if 
we did not continue to monitor it, to understand the processes in- 
volved and so on, that if we had not done research on the waste 
disposal problem, we could inevitably reach a point where we de- 
spoiled it sufficiently that it was significant. 
On the other hand, we have carried out a significant amount of 
research that indicates to some degree what safe levels are, what 
safe processes are. I think that the realistic answer is that we will 
not reach that point. We will not reach the point where we have so 
degraded that particular portion of the ocean that it will never re- 
cover. That is my answer to your question. 
Mr. Carney. Thank you. 
You have the dubious distinction to be dealing with sludge today. 
Certainly we cannot stop producing it. We are going to be produc- 
ing more and more of it. Will NOAA have a role in the evaluation 
of the other alternatives? Other than ocean dumping? 
Dr. ByRNE. Well, to the extent that we work with EPA and the 
Corps of Engineers and so on, I am sure that as far as this dialog is 
concerned, we will have a role. We have a role with respect, cer- 
tainly, to understanding the ocean, ocean research. So my answer 
to your question is, “‘yes.’ 
Mr. CARNEY. Do you agree with the EPA testimony? I am not 
sure whether you were in here—— 
Dr. Byrne. It was a long testimony, sir. 
Mr. D’Amours. The part of the testimony where they said they 
think they could have preliminary answers to the research going 
on in the multimedia aspect of the various methods of sludge 
dumping. They said they could have preliminary answers or direc- 
tion within a year and you are taking part in that study. Would 
you agree that that time frame is accurate? And before I ask this 
question I want to make one point clear. I, personally, as the chair- 
man of this subcommittee, and I know the staff, does not think 
that disposal of dredge material is one of our critical problems and 
I think it only confounds, perhaps, the issue from our perspective. 
But, nor do we think it is not at least a small part of a broader 
problem. 
I thought I heard you say that if we did remove ourselves from 
the bight and dumping of dredge, that it would not make much of a 
difference and that if we continue dumping that it would not do 
much either further to degrade the area. The Mitre Corp. did a 
report in May 1979 and the sponsor was the U.S. Army Corps of 
Engineers, New York district, in which they said that up to 30 per- 
cent of the New York Bight’s inputs of selected contaminants—and 
I am not sure I know what selected contaminants means in this 
case—results directly from the disposal of dredge material. So, 
