704 
potentialities. . ." (33 U.S.C. 1412(c). EPA was also required to 
establish criteria for reviewing and evaluating permit applications 
based on factors set out in the MPRSA. 
When the MPRSA became effective in 1973, EPA established various 
categories of permits authorizing ocean dumping activities. One such 
category, called an interim permit, was established to allow the ocean 
dumping of materials which did not comply with EPA's environmental 
criteria for acceptable ocean dumping. In 1977, EPA announced a policy 
to phase out all ocean dumping authorized by interim permits by 
December 31, 1981. 
In 1977, Congress reviewed EPA's policy. The House Committee on 
Merchant Marine and Fisheries was concerned about EPA's progress in 
curbing harmful ocean dumping. The Committee questioned EPA's authority 
to issue interim permits under the MPRSA because the permits allowed the 
dumping of material which did not meet the standards of the EPA ocean 
dumping criteria. Because of these concerns, the Committee decided to 
codify EPA's phase-out policy. The major question before the Committee 
was whether or not to ban all dumping of sewage sludge. The full committee 
decided to ban the dumping of sewage sludge but defined sewage sludge to 
mean "...any solid, semisolid or liquid waste generated by a municipal 
waste water treatment plant the ocean dumping of which may unreasonably 
degrade or endanger human health, welfare, amenities or the marine 
environment, ecological systems or economic potentialities." (33 U.S.C. 
1412a). 
The “unreasonably degrade" standard in the definition of the term 
"sewage sludge" is the same standard already existing in the MPRSA. 
Whether or not the sewage sludge amendment was passed, it still is 
improper under the MPRSA to permit the ocean dumping of any material 
unless it is determined that such dumping will not unreasonably degrade 
or endanger human health, welfare or amenities or the marine environment, 
ecological systems or economic potentialities. The intent of the sewage 
sludge amendment was to require EPA to stop issuing "interim permits" 
which allowed for the dumping of materials seemingly prohibited under 
the Act. 
