175 



STATEMENT OF HON. EDWARD I. KOCH, MAYOR OF THE CITY OF 

 NEW YORK, ACCOMPANIED BY JOSEPH T. McGOUGH, JR., COM- 

 MISSIONER, NEW YORK CITY'S DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRON- 

 MENTAL PROTECTION; AND JAMES J. GIFT, VICE PRESIDENT, 

 ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMS, ECOLOGICAL ANALYSTS, INC. 



Mayor Koch. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 



As I know you know it is a pleasure to come back to the Con- 

 gress on any occasion and especially to come before you because we 

 have been and always will be very good friends. I am grateful to 

 the members of the subcommittee, Mario for his kind and generous 

 comments, and Mr. Forsythe, we know one another, and I appreci- 

 ate the enormous expertise he brings to the committee and his co- 

 operation. 



I would like to introduce my associates, Commissioner McGough 

 who is in charge of the environmental protection department in 

 the city of New York, and Jim Gift, our expert consultant. 



I would ask your indulgence and allow me at 2:35 if you will to 

 depart and leave you with the experts so I can make a 3 o'clock 

 plane to get back to city hall this afternoon. 



Mr. BiAGGi. May I suggest you leave at 2:30 to be certain? 



Mayor Koch. I have a lengthy statement which I would like to 

 file and I have a short oral statement which I would like to read. 



The fact is that sewage sludge has to go somewhere. In our opin- 

 ion, no other option — landfill, composting, or incineration — pre- 

 sents fewer environmental hazards than ocean dumping. And no 

 other site for ocean dumping is preferable to the 12-mile site we 

 have used, along with other municipalities, since the late 1930's. 



In 1982 we dumped 3.2 million wet tons of sludge, produced at 

 our 12 water pollution control plants, in the New York Bight. This 

 material does contain trace amounts of metals like cadmium, lead, 

 mercury, nickel, and some PCB's. 



There is no question that this disposal does contribute to some of 

 the environmental degradation of the bight. We have studied condi- 

 tions in the bight, and at other suggested sites 60 miles and 106 

 miles from New York City. Our studies indicate that the environ- 

 mental effects of disposal in the bight have been relatively small 

 compared to other sources of pollution. 



This pollution of the bight is regrettable, but it is our position 

 that any other sludge disposal option would have even more delete- 

 rious effects on the environment. 



LandfiUing is not a viable option for New York City. Even with- 

 out the addition of millions of tons of sewage sludge, our landfills 

 are close to disappearing. One will close in 3 years. The second, 

 even with the addition of new technologies for compacting refuse, 

 will have to close in 18 years — just in time, if we are fortunate, for 

 our first proposed resource recovery plant to open. 



Even if we did have landfill space, disposal of sewage sludge in 

 landfills could well present us with significant problems in con- 

 tamination of ground water. 



Ground water contamination also would exist with techniques of 

 composting, or spreading dried sludge as fertilizer and plowing it 

 into the ground. And because of the metal content of the sludge, 

 such land could never be used for an3i:hing but park land — an 



