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ever, the end result of this labor has been passage of a series 
of environmental statutes -- the Clean Water Act, the Marine 
Protection Act, the Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, 
and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act -- which regulate 
waste disposal in a fragmented manner, with protections 
established for specific disposal mediums. This fragmented 
approach has not always permitted a dispassionate, scientific 
assessment of the risks and benefits associated with a variety 
of disposal options in particular settings, 
Given the nature of the Congressional decision-making 
process, this is understandable. As a Member of Congress, I 
voted for all of these statutes myself. However, now that we 
stand at the end of a decade of legislating, it is important to 
come to grips with the outcomes that flow from a fragmented 
approach to waste disposal. I fear that the end result of this 
process is a progressive narrowing of the options available for 
disposing of our society's wastes and a rejection of the best 
scientific evidence we have with respect to the risks involved 
in competing waste disposal options, 
The Marine Protection Research and Sanctuaries Act, as it 
now exists, is one of the few environmental statutes which 
recognizes that our environment is a highly complex, interrelated 
svstem and that waste disposal strategies involve difficult but 
