736 
Mr. D’Amours. Do you see any gaps in the current Federal moni- 
toring and research efforts? 
Mr. BorBerc. I think those are two separate things. I think our 
agencies are better equipped to monitor than are Federal agencies. 
We will go out and gather the information. The Federal Govern- 
ment or the Commission has to do basic research to determine 
what to do with the information we gather, and what it means. 
In other words, they must set up certain parameters, limits, 
whaleHets and then we can go out and get that data and comply 
with it. 
I don’t really see a need for the Federal Government to do moni- 
toring. They may want to check on us, as they do now under the 
NPDES system, but right now we monitor all of our effluents and 
submit the data to the State oreganizations and to EPA. 
Mr. D’Amours. Do you see any gaps, then, in the Federal re- 
search efforts that you think might be filled by the creation of a 
commission such as is proposed? 
Mr. BorsBerc. I think there needs to be more research done on 
the ocean environment. As I mentioned in my testimony, most of 
the work that has been done in the past has been negative. You 
dump this material in a big pile, and you say—you know, it doesn’t 
do any good; in fact, look at all the harm it does. 
I wouldn’t expect anything else, but I think that if you properly 
treat the material, the organic material that goes in the ocean, if 
you have industrial pretreatment standards, which many, many 
agencies do, you wind up with a material that can fertilize crops, 
trees, grass, reclaim land, and the fertilization process in the ocean 
is very similar. 
I think that our agency believes that a similar fertilization proc- 
ess could be done in the ocean. I am not saying that all material is 
suitable for that, but I think that that is a whole other side of the 
picture that has not been looked at, and I think added research 
needs to be done in this sector. 
Mr. D’Amours. So you see this as one of the gaps that the com- . 
mission, such as proposed, might help to fill? 
Mr. BorBeErG. Yes, sir. 
Mr. D’Amours. Were it created and funded. 
Mr. BorBeErG. Yes, sir. 
Mr. D’Amours. In anticipation of your testimony, I referred EPA 
and NOAA to your testimony where you contend that NOAA and 
EPA incur no field costs for monitoring because they assign the 
work to be done to the municipalities. NOAA and EPA both re- 
sponded to that negatively. 
I want to give you an opportunity to address their response. 
Mr. BorBerG. Perhaps we are not completely cognizant of every 
place that NOAA and EPA spend money. I would think, though, 
that our member organizations fund the far greater portion of the 
monitoring effort undertaken in this country. Certainly EPA and 
NOAA might do some on their own, and they might check on our 
agency, but I think basically our agency is the one that picks up 
most of the bill for monitoring, and we would recommend that this 
continue. 
Mr. D’Amours. I want to thank you, Mr. Borberg. 
I have no further questions at this time. 
