313 



Mr. D'Amours. Thank you, gentlemen. 



I would like to state for the Lieutenant Governor that a good 

 many of the members of this committee fully agree that had it not 

 been for Judge Sofaer and what we consider his erroneous decision 

 that we perhaps would be on land by now. We almost were as you 

 well know, until that decision reversed the trend. 



But given that we are now considering, the tradeoffs between the 

 12- and the 106-mile sites, your testimony indicates that Delaware 

 will be severely affected by switching to the 106-mile site. What 

 evidence do you have, or can you offer us that dumping at the 106- 

 mile site will have that impact on Delaware? 



Mr. Castle. You ask the difference between the 12-mile site and 

 the 106-mile site you put us between the devil and the deep blue 

 sea in making a decision. 



Mr. D'Amours. That is where this committee is. 



Mr. Castle. I understand that. But 106 miles is a long ways 

 away. We are worried about the monitoring of that. We feel that 

 when Philadelphia was dumping up until 2 years ago we were 

 having some problems with our environment because of some of 

 what we consider to be short dumping as testified to by our fishing 

 people. 



We also feel that the 12-mile site is known as far as environmen- 

 tal impacts, whatever it is. Whether it is limited or not it is a 

 known and controlled factor. We are not sure what will happen if 

 we switch to 106 miles. You can argue it is a lesser impact but that 

 is not certain, especially when one moves off the Delaware shore. 

 We have a basic concern as to why the various cities in areas of 

 other States can't take care of their own problems in this situation. 



We do, as you probably well know, depend on our resort area for 

 our tourism in the State of Delaware. Any indication of any prob- 

 lem whatever can create havoc with our tourism industry, even a 

 false report can cause problems. 



In addition, we have some uncertainty as to what the 106-mile 

 site would attract. We understand that new York does not want to 

 go that far, and other people may not. But it gets it further off- 

 shore and it may open places all the way from Connecticut to 

 North Carolina that might be involved in it. It concerns us that 

 others may try to fit into that site. 



For these reasons we feel that the continuation of the 12-mile 

 site would be more reasonable at this time. Obviously we would 

 like to have the alternative of land disposal looked at. It is our feel- 

 ing unless the Congress comes down on it that that will never be 

 done. 



Mr. D'Amours. I very much agree with your answer and I know 

 most of the members here today probably agree with it also. We 

 thought we had addressed land disposal versus ocean dumping, but 

 Judge Sofaer thought we had not done that. 



But the question is specifically whether or not you have any evi- 

 dence, anything that indicates that dumping at the 106-mile site 

 will in a real and tangible and more direct way than you so far 

 indicated affect the State of Delaware? I take it from your testimo- 

 ny that there is no such evidence? 



Mr. Castle. I have no tangible evidence but I would like to see if 

 Director Eichler has anything to say concerning that. 



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