337 
Tie Philadelphia Anguiver 
BA ee Aa Independent Newspaper 
Joh 2 “Publsbed Every Merning ty Philadelphia Newepapera Ine 
ahs 400 N. Broed Street, 
So SSeS Rance 
Philadelphia, Pa. 19103 
\ EUGENE L. ROBERTS JB. 
Executive Editor 
EPA must seal fia. 
_ om ocean- ‘dumping ( deadline . 
“Under ordérs of the Congress, ocean 
disposal of sewage sludge must end by - 
Dee. 31, 11 years after passage of the 
federal Marine Protection, Research 
- and Sanctuaries Act. The deadline was 
"set after scientific'studies proved that 
years of dumping sludge had contami- 
nated surrounding ocean water, sea- 
bed and aquatic life with toxic pollu- 
tants such. as oil, metals, PCBs and 
other substances. The long-range ef 
fects of that are not- entirely known, 
but are perilous. 
Philadelphia, New York, Camden 
and several northern New. Jersey 
municipalities that barged their sew- 
age sludge to sea fought the deadlines 
- Imposed by the U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency. After granting the 
" ‘cities additional: time to find suitable 
land-based sludge disposal methods, 
the EPA adopted a get-tough policy to 
force the cities to halt ocean-dumping. 
- In April 1977, the EPA fined Philadel- 
phia $225,000 and set a strict timetable 
for alternative sludge disposal. © 
. Despite Philadelphia's opposition to 
“the. EPA’s actions, the city ended 
ocean-dumping a year before the 1981 
deadline and, in fact, has put the 
sludge to beneficial uses on Jand, in- 
cluding- reclamation of barren strip- 
mined land, and soil supplements in 
. the city and on home lawns and gar- 
dens. Camden halted its ocean-dump- 
ing in 1978 and now uses its sludge for 
composting material 
* The city of New York and the north- 
ern New Jersey municipalities stil] are 
dumping their sludge in the ocean. 
The EPA currently is reviewing its 
desdline for New York to halt that 
disposal practice, following a lawsuit 
brought by the city which still is pend- 
ing in the courts. That leaves the six 
municipalities, whic have asked the 
federal court in Newark to invalidate 
portions of the EPA's oceandumping 
rules in order that they can continue 
ocean di 
_ One of the most notewurshe aspects 
“of the jawsuit is the apparent shift in 
thinking on the part of the EPA under 
the Reagan administration. EPA offl- 
ials have expressed a. willingness to_ 
allow New York and the New. Jersey 
communities to continue dumping if 
they barge the sludge further off- 
shore. The waste materials are now 
dumped 12 miles out in the New York 
Bight, a shallow body of water off 
torthern New Jersey that is consid-_ 
ered to be the most degraded coastal, 
area in the country. 
The National Wildlife Federation © 
and its affiliate, the New Jersey State 
Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, have: 
gone to court to defend the federal 
ocean-dumping regulations as applied 
to the New Jersey communities. Ac-- 
cording to a lawyer for the wildlife 
organization, “if we hadn't gotten in- 
volved in this lawsuit, there would be 
no one arguing on behalf of the 
oceans.” 
The .New Jersey municipalities 
claim the alternatives to ocean dispos- 
al of sludge are unsatisfactory — an’ 
argument raised in the past by: Phila- 
delphia and Camden. That argument 
proved fallacious in the 1970s, even 
when technology was not as far along 
_ as it Is today. The experience of Phila- 
delphia and Camden, plus the techni- 
cal advances in the intervening years, 
render iteven more meaningless) ~ 
EPA's lack of enthusiasm for enforc- 
ing the Marine Protection, Research 
and Sanctuaries ‘Act is a cause of alarm: 
Scientific research in the past decade 
has indicated that perhaps the threat 
of ocean dumping of toxic materials, 
including sewage sludge, may not pose 
as serious an immediate threat to the 
world’s environment as was feared 
when the act was passed. But even the 
-Most optimistic scientist cannot pre 
dict what the long-term effects will be. 
There are proven methods of disposing 
of the materials on land. Ccean damp- 
ing of sludge must be halted. ? 
