202 
You will never know what happened out there until it is too late; 
that is me, editorializing. 
2. If adverse effects did occur, damage might be irreversible because of the report- 
ed extremely slow degradation process in the deep ocean; 
3. It is located near Hudson Canyon, an important geological feature and possible 
biotic migration route. 
I do not know what that means, but it sounds serious. 
Mr. D’Amours. Ed, I am not making a case for the 106-mile site. 
In fact, in my question, I specifically mentioned the 65-mile site 
and the 106-mile site, and there are other sites. 
I have terribly abused my time, and I apologize to the committee 
members for that. Talking to you is like eating peanuts, Ed; I 
cannot stop. I now recognize the ranking minority member, Mr. 
Pritchard. 
Mr. PRITCHARD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 
I do not know what the city is going to do without you, Ed. 
Mayor Kocu. They would only gain a Governor. 
Mr. PRITCHARD. I would just hate to have to follow your act as 
the next mayor. 
You have plans to attempt to get into the category of a compre- 
hensive special permit. You have been on a temporary one. How 
are you progressing on the special permit application? 
Mayor Kocu. May I turn to our commissioner to respond to that. 
Mr. McGouaGu. Yes; we are in the process of preparing a special 
permit application. There will be two rulemaking proceedings. One 
will address the question of site designation for disposal of sewage 
sludge. Then there is the special permit application process. We are 
preparing to participate actively in the rulemaking on a site desig- 
nation and will be applying for a special permit. As part of this 
process we will prepare an analysis of alternative ocean disposal 
sites and the land-based alternative. In other words, during this 
process we will assess the impacts of these alternative disposal 
methods. Both rulemaking proceedings will be public, with com- 
ments submitted by all interested parties. 
Mr. PRITCHARD. Ed, I guess the thing that disturbs some of us is 
the time factor in this thing. We cannot make you do something 
that seems to be unreasonable, but there is a feeling that this con- 
dition may go on and on and on. The same arguments will be used 
10 or 20 years from now. In your own mind, what are the time- 
frames we are talking about? 
Mayor Kocu. I am not a scientist, and therefore I am not able to 
give you a timeframe. I believe that monitoring is the key here. 
When the results of a monitoring program indicate that degrada- 
tion is significantly greater, such that it warrants removal, at that 
point a removal date should be imposed, but not before. That is No. 
1: monitoring is key. If there is not adequate monitoring at the 
moment, we are happy to participate in an expanded program. 
There also has to be a Federal, local, and industry effort to im- 
prove technology. I have suggested—and it is not an original sug- 
gestion—that the Federal Government should require industry to 
remove contaminants at the original site before they enter the 
wastewater treatment system where it is technologically possible to 
do so. You could, if you wanted, impose a special tax on the indus- 
tries that use these chemicals—— 
