712 
will have to be conducted to assess the immediate and long-range effects 
of the total waste loading. 
The legislative mandate of Congress to prevent the ocean dumping of 
"harmful" sewage sludge will require the delineation and definition of 
"unreasonable degradation". This task may prove to be extremely 
complicated and demanding of resources. Merely understanding ecosystem 
processes will require extensive evaluation of sites for their potential 
capacity to assimilate wastes. Research in marine ecosystems, after 10 
years of funding, is just beginning to understand the processes. The 
added dimension of waste loading will demand development of an immediate 
extensive synthesis and predictive capability by U.S. marine pollution 
research programs or they will fail to contribute to the solution of 
waste management problems. 
