235 
Che Commonwealth of Massachusetts 
In the Year One Thousand Nine Hundred and Seventy. 
INTRODUCTION: 
The dumping of toxic chemicals in the ocean off Boston Light- 
ship is a serious threat to the environment that must be brought 
under immediate state control. 
Hazardous chemicals have been dumped 9.3 miles northeast of 
Boston Lightship for approximately six years, under a permit issued 
by the Corps of Engineers. This Commission pointed out the per- 
sistent dangers inherent in this practice, and urged the state to 
assert its jurisdiction and its authority. More state authority is 
needed and is hereby recommended (see Appendix A). More state 
ocean jurisdiction is being sought and will be the subject of a later 
report. 
The Commission has had the invaluable assistance of Doctors 
John M. Hunt and Max Blumer of the Department of Chemistry 
at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in its evaluation of 
the dumped chemicals, and in arriving at a solution to the urgent 
problem. 
‘The chemists advised the Commission that mercury, beryllium 
and radioactive waste should not be dumped in the ocean under 
any circumstances. Further, they advised us that other chemicals 
could be disposed of without damage to the marine environment 
if they were ordered burned, neutralized, re-cycled or refined. 
Study by the Commission staff found that no state official had 
sufficient authority to evaluate present methods of disposing of 
hazardous wastes and to order safer procedures, nor to investigate 
industrial and research processes in an effort to minimize harmful 
end products. 
Legal research indicated that the Department of Public Safety 
possessed adequate controls over explosives and inflammables, and 
the Department of Public Health had adequate controls over land 
dumps. But no state official possessed adequate authority over haz- 
