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The Farallon Islands nuclear dumpsites have taught the people of 
California several important lessons. The plutonium which has leaked 
from steel drums on the ocean floor fifty miles west of the Golden Gate 
Bridge is a qualitative indicator of the potentially hideous consequences 
inherent in the use of the ocean as a nuclear dumping ground. Colonies ‘. 
of marine organisms have been attracted to the barrels and powerful 
deep sea currents could serve as long range transport pathways for leaked 
radioisotopes. 
Data that has been collected from the Farallon Islands is insufficient 
to make any reasonable assumptions about the long-term human health con- 
sequences of the leaking barrels spread over the ocean bottom. It is 
likely that all the radioactive materials dumped at the Farallons, which 
include plutonium, will eventually be released into the sea. The behavior 
of the leaked radionuclides in the marine ecosystem remains a matter of 
conjecture. 
Following a hearing of the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources 
Subcommittee of the House Committee on Government Operations held in San 
Francisco on October 7, 1980, a commitment was made by the Environmental 
Protection Agency to devise a monitoring program for nuclear dumpsites 
in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The EPA subsequently developed 
a credible program to monitor ocean sediments, water and fish. However, 
the Reagan Administration failed to provide funding for the implementation 
of the monitoring program. Despite a broad scientific consensus on the 
need for monitoring past disposal sites, the Reagan Administration is 
pushing forward to resume ocean disposal of nuclear wastes. As a result, 
uncertainties about past disposal continue to linger over the marine 
environment while threats of new radicactive contaminations loom in the 
future. 
