680 
Despite the environmental legislation passed during the 1970s, a 
comprehensive waste management program for the U.S. does not exist. It 
is now apparent that environmental management is often disjointed because 
most of the existing laws deal with regulation of disposal in only one 
medium, i.e., air, water, or land. Few of the recent laws specify an 
integrated approach to dealing with environmental problems. The sewage 
sludge issue in New York-New Jersey (as elsewhere) requires an integrated 
multi-medium approach. A second reason for our present disjointed 
environmental management is that environmental legislation and regulation 
commonly address only one class of pollutants, as if that class of 
pollutants could be managed independently of other anthropogenic impacts. 
Since sewage sludge is not the dominant pollutant source in the New York 
Bight, its rational management must fully. consider the other waste 
sources to the Bight (Stanford et al., 1981). During recent examinations 
of appropriate land-based alternatives for sewage sludge disposal, 
several probable environmental, technical, and economic problems have 
been identified. It even seems apparent that, for some regions of the 
United States, these land-based disposal problems are at least as great 
as those resulting from ocean dumping. 
There is a general consensus among resource managers that, over the 
long term, strategies for management of all waste materials must emphasize 
control at the source and recycling, thereby minimizing disposal (National 
Academy of Sciences, 1976; U.S. General Accounting Office, 1977; National 
Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere [NACOA], 1981). The NACOA 
(1981) special report on the role of the ocean in a waste management 
strategy strongly recommends that: "... waste should be disposed of in 
the manner and medium that minimizes the risk to human health and the 
environment, and at a price that this nation is prepared to pay." NACOA 
delineates how the environmental legislation of the 1970s resulted in a 
disjointed process of waste management by medium and type of waste. For 
example, the Ocean Dumping Act regulates disposal from ships and barges 
at sea, while pipe discharges (outfalls) into the nation's waterways and 
oceans are controlled under the Clean Water Act. The incineration of 
wastes is regulated by the Clean Air Act when on land and by the Ocean 
