507 
FOREWARD 
"{A]lthough EPA does not recommend the past dumping practices 
and would not permit those activities to be done the same way 
‘today, our preliminary evaluation of their environmental con- 
sequences indicates no harm to man or the marine environment. 
It should be clearly recognized, however, that the information 
we have collected is not encyclopedic. It does represent a 
pioneering first step in developing general monitoring programs 
for both abandoned and active dumpsites, but more information 
is desirable from a scientific and public health point of view." 
Hearings before the House Subcommittee on 
Oceanography, 96th Cong., 96-53 (1980), at 
351 (testimony of Dr. Roger Mattson). 
"Existing [radioactive waste] disposal sites provide an excellent 
experimental situation to study the physical, chemical, and 
biological processes that incorporate, transform, and accumu- 
late radioactive elements and cause these toxic substances to 
migrate from the disposal cannister to biological recepters 
(including humans) ." 
NOAA's National Marine Pollution Program 
Plan [2nd 5-Year Plan, Covering 1981-85], 
(September 1980) at 42. 
"It has been a practice on the Pacific Coast to dispose of 
low-level waste by jettisoning containers of it onto the 
bottom of the sea in designated disposal areas. There is 
no evidence that this disposal practice has resulted in any 
inimical effect upon the environment; but neither is there 
evidence that harmful effects cannot eventually result 
jEsglopin sbiec 
"The concern here is not with any magnitudes of disposal 
already undertaken, but rather with understanding the 
implications of the continuing and increasing use of the 
oceans as a receptacle for disposal. History is replete 
with cases in which unrestricted pollution of various kinds, 
rapidly developing from innocuous beginnings, has subtly 
damaged or destroyed resources before understanding and 
controls could be developed." [emphasis added] 
National Academy of Sciences/National 
Research Council, Disposal of Low-Level 
Radioactive Waste into Pacific Coastal 
Waters, (1962) at viil. 
