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an area where we are going to have to, in the future, reclaim agricul- 
tural areas. We have agricultural surpluses now, but we can look to 
the future and find that we are going to need more land for agricul- 
ture. Maybe that is the solution, I don’t know, but we must look 
toward it. 
It is very imperative that we do not permit continued dumping this 
close to shore. The scientists at Sandy Hook have stated that there is 
an area which reaches out from the shores along our coast to a depth 
of about 20 fathoms or 120 feet. This is roughly 30 miles offshore. 
These marine ecologists believe that the area inside that 20 fathom 
mark must be what they call a no tolerance zone. This is where almost 
all of the marine ecology takes place, and there should be no pollution 
of any kind tolerated in that area, so as a minimum, we should assure 
that this shoreline, up to a depth of approximately 20 fathoms, should 
be clear of any contamination, if we expect to have a healthful marine 
ecology. x ! 
Last Friday, I had the privilege of speaking for some time with 
Thor Hyerdahl, the Norwegian explorer, who has just crossed the At- 
lantic Ocean, and was able to go into depth with some statements which 
IT am sure all of us were aware of last week about the tremendous pol- 
lution out in the middle of the ocean, not near the shore at all, but sev- 
eral mornings his crew found that it was impossible to bathe out in the 
middle of the Atlantic Ocean because of the tremendous amount of 
pollution, oil, tar, general pollution that they found. They were many 
times atraid to wash out their tooth brushes in the waters of the 
Atlantic Ocean, and he is concerned about that, as many of us are. 
I have introduced recently, and plan to remtroduce tomorrow, a 
bill calling upon the President to initiate the formation of an interna- 
tional environmental agency, so that all of the countries around the 
world, especially the large industrial and shipping nations, will be 
able to join together to devise standards and enforcement procedures to 
assure that we will not contaminate the high seas beyond our borders. 
I am happy that the gentleman from Michigan is cosponsoring 
this legislation. I certainly hope that it does get off the ground, and 
I may seem to be a bit inconsistent in saying we ought to, at this time, 
move the sludge out toward the international waters, and at the same 
time introduce legislation to prevent the contamination of the inter- 
naional waters, but I think this points out the dilemma that we, as 
citizens of the United States and citizens of this planet, face in the 
pollution field. We can no longer think of it as just our own area, our 
own country, or own coastline. We have to look at the planet as a whole 
in helping to solve our environmental problems. 
I thank you very much for your time, Mr. Chairman. 
Mr. Drnceru. Mr. Howard, the committee is grateful to you for a 
very helpful and a very vigorous statement. It is obvious to the Chair 
that you have given considerable thought to the matters. Your sugges- 
tions to this committee are most helpful. The Chair does wish to ob- 
serve with pleasure that you have taken the leadership in the area of 
international pollution of the waters of the ocean, and the Chair ex- 
presses his appreciation in being able to join you and follow your 
leadership in that very important matter. 
Mr. Grover? , 
