132. 
authorize activities prohibited by the act; no such permits could be is- 
sued in the future. ) 
H.R. 18454 would direct the Secretary of the Interior, acting through 
the Fish and Wildlife Service and in consultation with the Chief of 
Engineers, to establish standards concerning the discharge into the 
coastal waters of the United States of materials that might be harmful 
to the wildlife resources and the ecology of these waters. The standards 
would require that any person wishing to discharge materials into the 
coastal waters must sustain a burden of proof that the natural environ- 
ment and the ecology of the waters will not be endangered. The stand- 
ards would be required to be adopted by any department of the United 
States or of any State which issues permits for discharging in coastal 
waters, and would also apply to the activities of these departments. 
Mr. Chairman, we in the corps are deeply concerned about the prob- 
lems of attenuating adverse ecological and environmental effects as- 
sociated with the discharge of wastes in navigable waters of the United 
States and at sea. However, I wish to emphasize, and at the same time 
caution, that while short-term responses to the problem may hold ap- 
peal, our real need is for an effective and workable long-term solution 
which considers all aspects of the problem in context. 
As a first step to such a solution, in 1967 the Chief of Engineers re- 
quested the Director, Coastal Engineering Research Center, to under- 
take a study to monitor certain offshore areas to determine the imme- 
diate and residual effects of disposal activities on water quality, 
safety, water use, ecology, fish and wildlife, conservation and recrea- 
tion in the disposal and contiguous areas. Since the sludge dumping 
ground in the New York Bight area receives so much use, it was 
chosen for the study. 
The study was begun as a project of the Corps of Engineers by the 
Sandy Hook Marine Laboratory, Department of the Interior, in 1968. 
That laboratory has submitted to us an interim progress report on 
the results of the investigations so far conducted. This progress re- 
port is highly technical. We have arranged for the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution, which had also participated in outlining the scope of the study, 
to assist us in analyzing the work which has been accomplished to date, 
with a view to identifying any modifications that may be needed in 
the further conduct of the study. 
In August 1969 we initiated another study calculated to help us re- 
solve the total problem. It is being conducted by the Marine Science 
Research Center, State University of New York, Stony Brook, N.Y., 
to determine the chemical composition of the waste solids form the 
New York region that are being deposited in the dumping grounds in 
the ocean. These two studies, although they are concerned primarily 
with the New York Bight area, are expected to have general applica- 
tions. Nevertheless, there is a need for a comprehensive study on 
ocean dumping. 
We are only beginning to identify the ecological effects of ocean 
dumping. Yet it is already apparent that current disposal technology 
is not adequate to handle the volumes of wastes now being produced. 
Comprehensive new approaches are necessary if we are to manage this 
problem expeditiously and wisely. 
