101 
cept certain types of waste disposal. Standards for the types and 
amount of dumping would follow, in cooperation with the States, and 
the vast majority of our marine environment would be maintained as 
disposal-free marine sanctuaries where wildlife and fish could exist 
without the threat of foreign introduction of harmful materials. 
The bill includes justifiably stiff penalties for dumping in nondes- 
ignated areas, and for illegal dumping in designated areas: $10,000 
per day, per violation, with each day of violation constituting a sepa- 
rate offense. 
This is the same fee per violation that the Clean Air Act recently 
passed by the House Commerce Committee embodied. 
Two years are permitted for completion of the study and identifica- 
tion and designation of disposed areas, and the Secretary of Interior 
(or EPA) is required to cooperate with the Secretary of the Army 
in the execution of the study of potential water and submerged land 
areas. 
Following formal designation by Interior (or EPA), all existing 
licenses will be revoked and suspended, and the Army Corps of Engi- 
neers will receive new applications for controlled disposal in desig- 
nated areas. 
Enforcement of dumping standards—standards based on the capa- 
city of a specific marine area to absorb wastes harmlessly—shall be 
undertaken by the Coast Gyard. 
The foregoing represents an innovative approach to the problem 
of waste disposal in our harbor, river, and coastal waters, and has 
application to every type of waste disposal throughout the Nation. I 
strongly urge your prompt approval of this approach, and hope that 
we may see House action on this proposal before the close of the cur- 
rent session. 
The degree of the emergency facing us in New York and throughout 
the Nation will not permit us to move slowly or indecisively. We must 
act now. 
In early June, I convened a meeting in New York of Federal, State, 
and local officials involved in the fight to save our water. The all-day 
conference was well attended, and a list of participants is included 
here as appendix 4. 
Several conclusions were reached at that meeting, and all related to 
the very difficult problem of coordination between the several agencies 
of the Federal, State, and local governments. It was clear we have 
still not achieved a cohesive national policy for success in preventing 
further destruction of our waters and reclaiming our damaged waters. 
The problem of dumping sewage sludge and other wastes in the New 
York Bight was explored, and all agreed that the approach embodied 
in H.R. 17603 had merit. But the conference ranged well beyond the 
problem of the bight, and covered the harbor in general, and all the 
sources of pollution. 
It was abundantly clear that the Passaic River Valley, for example, 
dumped millions of gallons of raw wastes—sanitary and otherwise— 
into the harbor every day. Any mechanism developed in New York 
State for preventing pollution was doomed to failure so long as the 
neighboring State of New Jersey permitted the narrowminded Com- 
mission responsible for pollution control in the Passaic Valley to spew 
waste down the river and into New York Harbor. 
