267 
1972 London Dumping Convention 
The United States proposed legislative recommendations 
concerning ocean dumping to the U.N. Intergovernmental 
Working Group on Marine Pollution in 1971. The MPRSA 
provided a model that was closely followed by the London 
Conference. The signatory nations reached a consensus 
on the provisions in November 1972, and the United States 
ratified the Convention in 1974. 
The Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act 
of 1972 was amended (1974) to bring it into conformance 
with the international treaty by 1) extending the juris- 
diction of the United States to cover material dumped 
beyond the contiguous zone, 2) extending coverage to in- 
clude oil "to the extent that such oil is taken onboard 
a vessel or aircraft for the purpose of dumping," and 
3) requiring the Administrator to abide by the terms 
of the Convention when promulgating ocean dumping criteria 
under Sec. 102(a). The Administrator is given the 
latitude to establish and revise the ocean dumping criteria 
provided the applicable standards and criteria of the con- 
vention are considered (ie: Annex I & IT). 
The Convention seeks to achieve protection of the 
marine environment through a range of restrictions 
applicable to different categories of waste, depending 
upon the properties. Article IV(a) of the Convention 
rohibits the dumping of waste or other materials 
Tisted in Annex I unless the waste is either “rapidly 
rendered harmless" upon disposal or contains Annex I 
substances as otherthan ‘trace contaminants." The 
definition of “trace contaminants" is left to the Signa- 
tory nation via the implementation of regulations for 
testing and standards. 
Article IV(b) permits the dumping of waste or other 
materials listed in Annex II, but requires a special 
permit and the exercise of ‘special care" in the disposal 
Article IV(c) authorized the dumping of all other 
wastes or matter, provided a prior "general permit" is 
obtained. 
To date, the United States has progressively imple- 
mented the most stringent criteria concerning ocean 
dumping of dredged material. The Environmental Pro- 
tection Agency is currently revising the criteria in 
light of scientific data which indicates that ocean 
disposal of dredged material is an environmentally 
sound option to evaluate when considering the issuance 
of a dredging permit. 
14 
