44 



■10- 



The quantity of ocean dumped sewage sludges has increased from 4.6 

 million wet tons in 1973 to 7.6 million in 1982. While the number of 

 treatment plants ocean dumping their sludges has decreased from roughly 250 

 in 1973 to 28 today, the quantity dumped has increased significantly due to 

 the upgrading of treatment provided at most of the remaining facilities. A 

 listing of the remaining plants, as well as the quantities dumped during 

 1982, are summarized in Table 3. Note that Middletown Township (NJ) ceased 

 ocean dumping effective January 1, 1983, after implementing composting as an 

 alternative disposal method. Northeast Monmouth (NJ) is landfilling 

 dewatered sludges and plans to cease dumping June 1. The City of Glen Cove 

 is currently testing an innovative co-disposal incineration system. This 

 system, scheduled to be fully operational in late summer, will dispose of 

 solid wastes from the City and several nearby communities and sewage sludges 

 generated at the City's treatment plant, and will generate power in excess 

 of that required to operate the City's treatment plant. 



A number of questions have been raised by members of the Congress, by 

 the news media, by environmental groups and others, as to why EPA continues 

 to allow the ocean dumping of sewage sludge. Didn't Congress explicitly 

 require the cessation of all sewage sludge dumping in the ocean by the end 

 of 1981? Yes, it did! However, Congress specifically defined "sewage 

 sludge" in the Act as "any solid, semisolid, or liquid waste generated by a 

 municipal wastewater treatment plant the ocean dumping of which may 

 unreasonably degrade or endanger human health, welfare, or amenities, or the 

 marine environment, ecological systems, and economic potentialities." 



