498 
The members of CCA recognize the financial constraints that 
presently limit the federal government's ability to perform the 
necessary research and monitoring studies. Our members are com- 
mitted to the belief that sharply increased monitoring, evaluating 
and analyzing ocean waste disposal is necessary. We are eager to 
join with the federal government in sharing the burden of carry- 
ing out these studies. While monitoring is already undertaken 
by those municipalities discharging sludge to the oceans under 
requirements of their permits, our members are convinced that 
additional monitoring and analytical efforts are needed and we 
are committed to seeing that this is done. 
Thank you for this opportunity to make our views known to 
you on this subject. This concludes my prepared presentation. 
I will be happy to answer any questions. 
Mr. Breaux. Thank you very much, Mr. White, for your presen- 
tation and the work that you have been doing on this particular 
issue. 
There are some who would say if Congress will allow the con- 
tinuation of ocean dumping there really is no reason why commu- 
nities and counties and cities would have any incentive to build 
better treatment facilities as long as they know they have the 
ocean as a disposal method which is relatively inexpensive. There- 
fore, why should we spend our precious tax dollars for improve- 
ment of treatment facilities. 
Do you have a response to that? 
Mr. Wuite. Yes, sir. Most of the agencies including the coastal 
agencies have been busy at work putting together facilities to 
handle sludge. As we all know, this whole question is a little bit up 
in the air and I think one of the reasons that Judge Sofaer found 
as he did in the New York City case was because he knew and 
could tell from the evidence that New York City was not simply 
sitting there and believing that somebody would come and save 
them. They are a responsible agency in New York City and they 
were making the effort that had to be made, spending tens and 
hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to handle sludge by non- 
ocean alternatives and that is the way it is across the country. 
I don’t believe that if I were running an agency, that I would be 
comfortable believing that that the ocean would always be the 
option that is available to me. 
Part of our presentation, Mr. Chairman, is that we don’t know. 
And if it turns out that after a satisfactory examination, it is 
unwise to put sludge in the ocean, all of a sudden people will have 
to not put sludge in the ocean and must be prepared for such an 
eventuality. 
One of the reasons that a group such as the Association of Metro- 
politan Sewerage Agencies is perfectly comfortable with the posi- 
tion of the coastal agencies—sometimes there is a tendency to 
think that one will have it a little bit easier because the ocean is 
convenient—is the fact that all agencies throughout the country 
are having so much trouble finding land-based sites, that to the 
extent that coastal agencies do not compete for those land-based 
sites everybody else is better off. 
Plus the notion that as public servants you can’t be disinterested 
in the costs of various options. 
