260 
STATEMENT OF HON. FRANK ANNUNZIO, A REPRESENTATIVE IN 
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS 
Mr. Annunzio. As a member of this committee and subcommittee, 
it is a great pleasure and privilege to testify today on a series of bills 
which, when enacted into law, will serve to protect the coastal zone of 
the United States as well as other marine waters of the world from 
continued profligate, thoughtless, and needless wanton destruction. 
It is with pride that I am associated with many of my colleagues from 
both sides of the House in the introduction and support of these very 
essential measures. Special recognition must be made of the far-seeing 
contribution made by Mr. Fascell, the distinguished Congressman 
from Florida and my good friend, as author of H.R. 18918, a bill 
to prohibit the discharge into any of the navigable waters of the 
United States or into international waters of any military material. 
without a certification by the Council on Environmental Quality ap- 
proving such discharge. Mr. Fascell has also introduced H.R. 18914, 
a bill to require the Council on Environmental Quality to make a 
full and complete investigation and study of national policy with re- 
spect to the discharging of material into the oceans. Finally, he is 
senior author of House Concurrent Resolution 706, which expresses the 
sense of the Congress that the pollution of waters all over the world is 
a matter of vital concern to all nations and should be dealt with as a 
matter of the highest priority. 
IT also recognize and compliment my colleagues, Mr. Rogers of Flor- 
ida and Mr. Dingell, distinguished chairman of this subcommittee, for 
the leadership role they are playing by the introduction of H.R. 19088, 
a bill to amend the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 to re- 
quire a longer period of notice before a Federal agency commences any 
action significantly affecting the environment, and H.R. 19359, a bill 
to amend the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act to provide additional 
protection to marine and wildlife ecology by requiring the designation 
of certain water and submerged land areas where the depositing of 
certain waste materials is prohibited, and to require the establishment 
of standards with respect to such deposits in all other areas. 
My purpose in coming here today is to express my strongest support 
for these various measures under consideration. The recent insulting 
episode wherein the military establishment forced the Congress and 
the Nation into the position of having only a few days to consider the 
wisdom and advisability of dumping vast amounts of lethal nerve gas 
and explosives into the ocean pointed up vividly how essential it is to 
have a national policy for the protection of the marine environment. 
Further, we now recognize the necessity to spell out procedures and 
regulations guarding against repetition of such an eventuality. Even 
today we do not know whether ocean disposal was the best way of 
ridding ourselves of these dangerous materials, nor with certainty 
what effects might ensue in the future. We do know, however, that 
when the Army announced the decision to transport and dispose of the 
gas-explosive projectiles, many of our citizens became alarmed, and 
properly so. Conservationists, scientists, and responsible persons from 
all disciplines were dismayed that such a massive affront to our frail 
environment could be made in these days of ecological awareness with 
so little knowledge and concern of the consequences. 
2 ee 
