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predominantly their work relates to the performance of packaging 

 materials. We have recently published a document and sent it out 

 for review regarding sets of possible criteria for packaging of low 

 level radioactive waste. 



The Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, which is a NOAA 

 laboratory, is helping us in examining the critical erosion velocity 

 that could suspend particles that might contain radionuclides in 

 the vicinity of the dumpsite. This is one of the critical parameters; 

 that if the water velocity is low enough, then particles would not 

 be suspended and would then stay in the dumpsite. We are inter- 

 ested in developing a device to measure what that critical erosion 

 velocity might be. We hope to test that at sea in the near future. 



Another new and interesting scientific project is starting at 

 EPA's Environmental Research Laboratory in Narragansett, R.L, 

 and as well in the nearby Marine Ecosystem Research Laboratory 

 at the University of Rhode Island. There is a unique facility located 

 there, which includes large tanks of seawater in which all seasonal 

 variations of Narragansett Bay can be duplicated. The tanks con- 

 tain natural sediments and marine organisms and can on land ba- 

 sically reproduce the ecosystem; not precisely, but as well as we 

 know how. 



Various pollutants can be added to these mesocosms, as they are 

 called, to observe their fate and allow predictions of the conse- 

 quences which might result from disposal in ocean waters. EPA is 

 interested in evaluating whether or not this is a useful technique 

 for determining the environmental effect of radioactive materials. 



As you know, the EPA completed in September 1982 a compre- 

 hensive survey of Massachusetts Bay, an old dumpsite which was 

 used in which about 2 percent of the former dumped U.S. radioac- 

 tive wastes were dumped. We have completed an analysis of all of 

 the collected samples of sediment, biota, water, and commercial 

 and noncommercial species of seafood, and we found no radioactiv- 

 ity above normal background levels. This data was presented at an 

 international symposium in Seattle in May of this year. The de- 

 tailed data will be published, of course. 



Attached to my testimony is a list of 37 reports and publications 

 on EPA's ocean surveys and laboratory studies that have been com- 

 pleted to date, including 13 that have been published in the last 

 year and a half. We have provided these to the staffs. 



Our marketplace seafood monitoring is a joint effort between 

 EPA and the Food and Drug Administration. We have sampled 

 marine commercial seafoods from three cities in the vicinity of 

 where the old dumpsites were because we feel that this is the most 

 likely way to monitor any possible pickup. A total of 36 samples 

 have been collected so far and only normal levels of background ac- 

 tivity were detected. 



In December 1982 the Navy Department released its draft envi- 

 ronmental impact statement on the disposal of decommissioned, de- 

 fueled naval submarine reactor plants. This document compared 

 environmental impacts of land and sea disposal of defueled subma- 

 rine reactor plants. EPA organized a team of 30 technical special- 

 ists to thoroughly review this environmental impact statement, in- 

 cluding experts in oceanography, radioecology, ocean modeling, sta- 



