249 
Years of extensive monitoring have documented no progressive degra- 
dation due to dumping in the New York Bight Apex. Although relative 
high concentrations of some compounds considered to be pollutants 
have been found in the apex, it is difficult to detect nonnatural 
variations in their distribution, concentration, and there are no 
generally accepted methods to trace the source for many of the 
materials found in the marine environment. Monitoring methods would 
need to be extremely complex and precise to detect "degradation," as 
defined in Subsection 3(m) of the draft Amendment, and to attribute 
such degradation to a particular source. Such a monitoring program 
would require massive effort and commensurate funding. It is doubt- 
ful that after three years any monitoring program would be capable of 
actually detecting degradation. It seems more fitting to retain the 
flexibility presently inherent in the existing Act and Ocean Dumping 
Regulations which could more easily and appropriately incorporate new 
scientific or technical knowledge. 
The draft Amendment states that it is United States policy "...to 
restore areas degraded by dumping in order that all reasonable and 
accustomed uses of marine resources may again be made..."' [Subsection 
2(b)(2)]. This concept is embodied in the draft Amendment definition 
of degrade such that an area is degraded when it "...cannot naturally 
restore itself, after dumping is terminated, to the environmental, 
esthetic, and economic posture existing before dumping in the area 
was authorized under this Act" [Subsection 3(m)(4)]. Although the 
concept of restoration is admirable, restoration would be extremely 
difficult to measure, especially in cases where several types of 
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