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our abandoned dumps. The goals and requirements of these statutes 

 have been admirable but not necessarily consistent. As I stated 

 in my testimony last year, the end result of such an approach is 

 a progressive narrowing of the options available for disposing of 

 our society's wastes and an inability to make decisions based 

 upon the best scientific evidence we have with respect to the risks 

 and benefits involved in competing waste disposal and cleanup 

 options. Now that we have most of our basic environmental statutes 

 in place, it may be that our society is ready to move into a more 

 mature phase of regulation which recognizes that all portions of 

 the environment are connected and which provides a means for 

 evaluating the comparative risks and benefits of differing disposal 

 and cleanup strategies. Perhaps the studies called for in Section 

 3 of H.R. 1547 as it was reported by the Committee will provide a 

 means to begin addressing some of these issues. 



At this point I would like to comment upon three legislative 

 proposals which are currently before the Committee in one form or 

 another. 

 106-mile Proposals 



We understand that drafting efforts are underway by Members 

 concerned about dumping at the 106-mile site. I would like to 

 request that we be given an opportunity to respond in detail to 

 this legislative proposal and any others that are not yet available 

 before the Committee takes final action on the issue of sewage 

 sludge disposal. As for the 106-mile site, we have completed an 

 extensive review of the oceanographic conditions at the site and 

 we are submitting a technical summary of that review for the record. 



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