345 
you have organisms in the marine environment like shellfish that 
are noteworthy in terms of being able to bioaccumulate heavy 
metals and other contaminants from minute concentrations in the 
surrounding water to levels hundreds of thousandsfold, and some- 
times millionsfold, beyond their levels in the surrounding environ- 
ment. There is the potential for food chain magnification on land, 
but I don’t think there are any bioaccumulators that exist in the 
land environment that can match that capability on the part of 
shellfish. 
Mr. D’Amours. Thank you, Ken. 
Are there any further questions? 
[No response. | 
We appreciate your testimony. You have performed a real serv- 
ice for this subcommittee. We thank you for it and look forward to 
hearing from you again and often. 
Mr. KaMLetT. Thank you very much. 
Mr. D’Amours. The next witness is Michael Garabedian who is 
assistant national conservation representative of the Sierra Club of 
New York. 
Mr. Garabedian, you may proceed whenever you are ready. 
STATEMENT OF MICHAEL GARABEDIAN, ASSISTANT NATIONAL 
CONSERVATION REPRESENTATIVE, SIERRA CLUB 
Mr. GARABEDIAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 
I am Michael Garabedian, the assistant national conservation 
representative of the national organization of the Sierra Club locat- 
ed in New York. On behalf of the 280,000 members of our organiza- 
ae wish to thank you for providing us with this opportunity to 
testify. 
We want to thank the two subcommittees that have called 
today’s hearings for their diligent efforts over the years to put an 
end to harmful ocean dumping and to get the facts on the record. 
Without your work, we would be in a much worst predicament na- 
tionwide than we are today. 
My testimony today will discuss our nationwide goals for ocean 
dumping legislation. But, first, because of today’s testimony by 
Mayor Koch, and because our office represents the Sierra Club in 
New York, I feel it necessary for comment on the New York City 
situation. 
Future generations will look at the sludge dumping actions of 
the city of New York with the same distaste and disdain with 
which we today regard the sanitary habits of towns of medieval 
Europe in which people threw their personal and household refuse 
into the street in front of their homes. This disdain will be en- 
hanced by the knowledge that sludge is today a useful and there- 
fore wasted resource. 
But, New York’s actions are worse than those towns that merely 
despoiled their own doorsteps. New York’s continued dumping de- 
spoils the marine environment for all living creatures and pollutes 
the waters of those people who are New York’s neighbors. 
How can pride in the city survive knowledge that off the shores 
of New York we have created a 28.5 mile-long contaminated area 
of fecal coliform bacteria smelling of hydrogen sulfide gas? And 
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