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more energy can be recovered, is an energy-consumptive process. 
So, when we talk about "recycling," or "resource recovery," with 
sewage sludge, we are really talking about a very expensive way 
to do something that could be done better, and cheaper by another 
process. With our methane recovery systems, we think that we are 
squeezing the last btu of energy out of sewage sludge that can be 
justified. 
SLUDGE IN THE OCEAN - EFFECTS 
NACOA reviewed. the effects of sewage sludge disposal in the 
Marine environment in its 1981 report. For the past ten years, 
the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP) 
has been studying the effects of sewage effluent and solids on 
the marine ecosystems of the Southern California Bight. There 
is also a recent paper, presented at Woods Hole last year, by 
Dr. Larry Swanson and the staff of NOAA's Office of Marine Pol- 
lution Assessment and the Ocean Dumping Office, on the effects 
of sewage sludge disposal in the New York Bight Apex, comparing 
those effects with those at other proposed ocean dumpsites. My 
own agency, Orange County Sanitation Districts, is jointly fund- 
ing, with NOAA, a research project at the California Institute 
of Technology that is addressing the need for additional monitor— 
ing and evaluation of sewage solids in the Southern California 
Bight that would result from a deep ocean outfall proposed to 
be built by Orange County if approval is obtained-- as an ex- 
periment--to dispose of sludge at about the 1,000 foot level 
into a deep marine basin. 
There is a perception, which I hope to dispel, that sewage 
sludge disposal on the Pacific Coast is somehow an entirely 
separate phenomenon from the disposal of sludge on the East 
Coast. The qualitative character of sludges will of course 
differ from place to place, as do the local oceanographic con- 
ditions. But the effects of “sludge” disposal in the ocean, 
we believe, are comparable in the two oceans. There are only 
two existing pipeline dischargers of sludge in the country, 
Los Angeles and Boston. Los Angeles discharges about 165 dry 
tons per day at the head of a submarine canyon, seven miles 
offshore, and Boston discharges about 65 dry tons per day at 
the seaward edge of Boston Harbor, on the outgoing tide. We 
believe the potential exists for a few additional pipeline 
discharges into the ocean, if it were proved environmentally 
sound on a case-by-case basis. 
There are not many ocean "dumpers" of sludge; none at present 
on the West Coast. At the present time, ocean “dumping" of 
sewage sludge is only being conducted by agencies in the New 
York-New Jersey area. New York City, the biggest of those, puts 
about 260 dry tons per day currently at the 12-mile site in the 
New York Bicht. We recognize that the potential exists for a 
small number of new East Coast dischargers, provided that they 
can prove that there would be no "unreasonable degradation" of 
the marine environment, or unreasonable danger to human health. 
