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and gas. On this goal, everybody could agree. Therefore, discussions 

 involving the entire audience were centered on the discovery and 

 interpretation of data and evidence. Most votes of the Task Force were 

 unanimous. 



A subcommittee, chaired by Dr. Suzanne Bolton, then a scientist with 

 EPA, started designing the monitoring plan for Sale #42 in 1980. The 

 plan that was adopted unanimously in April, 1981, was essentially put 

 together at a series of two-day open meetings attended by academic 

 scientists, government officials, industry scientists, and 

 representatives of environntental groups. All interested States at one 

 time or another were represented--Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, 

 Massachusetts. What struck me most forcefully at the meeting where the 

 plan was adopted was that it was heartily endorsed by all factions. Just 

 about everybody had components they would have liked to have seen in the 

 monitoring program, but these people recognized the contraints as well as 

 the goals. They recognized that the plan brought about by consensus was 

 good. The Department of the Interior subsequently funded it. 



Design and Usefulness of the Monitoring Program 



The major environmental concern of the Task Force centers on 

 determining the effects on bottom- dwelling animals of discharges from 

 oil/gas drilling operations. The bottom-dwel lers help support the 

 commercial fisheries of Georges Bank. The discharges include drilling 

 fluids and the drill cuttings. 



