141 



_ EXHIBIT II 



^t^. NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION 





^■^^^^r^f ■''*''2 Sixteenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036 202—797-6 



February 10, 198 3 



Mr. T. A. Wastler, Chief 



Marine Protection Branch (WH-585) 

 Environmental Protection Agency 

 401 M Street, S.W. 

 Washington, D. C. 20460 



Re: Comments on Proposed Rule to Designate the 106 Mile Site 



as an Approved Ocean Dumping Site for the Authorized Disposal 

 of Municipal Sludge, 47 Fed. Reg. 56663-65, December 20, 1982 



Dear Mr. Wastler: 



Pursuant to the invitation to comment on the above-referenced 

 notice of proposed rulemaking, the National Wildlife Federation 

 offers the following views: 



1. Suitability of the 106 Site to Receive Sewage Sludge 



In our view (notwithstanding the contrary implication in 

 the City of New York case) there is no basis under the Marine 

 Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act, under the international 

 London Dumping Convention , or under EPA ' s Ocean Dumping Regulations 

 and Criteria for regarding sewage sludge which may not be lawfully 

 dumped at the 12-Mile Site to be any more legally acceptable for 

 dumping at the 106-Mile Site. Specifically, the Ocean Dumping 

 Criteria specify (§ 227.8) that "no wastes will be deemed acceptable 

 for ocean dumping unless such wastes can be dumped so as not to 

 exceed the limiting permissible concentration as defined in § 227.27." 

 Yet, under § 227.27, only for the "liquid phase" does the "limiting 

 permissible concentration" ("LPC") incorporate an "initial mixing" 

 component as to which one might expect a difference between the 

 12-Mile and 106-Mile sites. By contrast, for the suspended particulate 

 and solid phases — which, for sewage sludge, is where most of the 

 environmental impact potential resides — the LPC is defined strictly 

 on the basis of laboratory toxicity and bioaccumulation tests, the 

 results of which are uninfluenced by the choice of disposal site. 

 Since the proposed site designation action properly and necessarily 

 would restrict sludge dumping at the 106-Mile Site to sludge which is 

 determined to not cause "unreasonable degradation and endangerment , " 

 the real issue is whether any of the sewage sludge currently dumped 

 at the 12-Mile Site can satisfy the "unreasonable degradation" test. 



47th ANNUAL MEETING MARCH 18-20, 1983 Regent Hotel, Albuouerque, Nes» Mexico 

 ttxnk ttcUimed ptper 



