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Traditionally, we as a nation have divested ourselves of our wastes 
and unwanted materials by dumping them into some nearby water 
course, eventually to reach the sea, or into the ocean directly. The 
Military Establishment has been dumping out-dated munitions into 
convenient ocean areas for many years. In fact, examination of many 
navigation charts shows these as restricted areas. This method of 
operation is not unique to our military forces, nor should the military 
be held totally and exclusively guilty. The oceans have been utilized as 
dumping grounds for garbage, sewage, oil, chemical effluents, heavy 
metals, radioactive wastes, and all sorts of other potentially destructive 
materials. The civilian abuses of the ocean are continued with no more 
knowledge of the consequences than are those of the military. 
The time has come to replace tradition with knowledge. The time has 
come for reappraisal of our tacitly assumed national policy of promis- 
cuous dumping into territorial and international waters. So far we are 
lucky that we seem to have suffered no great and direct tragedy as a 
consequence. Recent studies, however, indicate that this lack of tragedy 
is only apparent. The ongoing dumping of garbage into waters off 
New York has produced a vast area devoid of life, large numbers of 
fish with fins rotting off and other dreadful debilities. Just what do 
we really know about the situation? Very little, lam afraid. . 
We must take action to prevent further degradation of the environ- 
ment without full and complete knowledge of what we are doing. 
These measures under consideration today do not solve all of the 
problems associated with ocean disposal; they merely call for the 
barest minimum permissible to a civilized and responsible people. All 
that is required is time to consider the consequences and alternatives 
of specific programs and episodes of dumping potentially harmful 
substances into the ocean, sanctuaries for the preservation of valuable 
marine ecosystems, and enunciation of a policy to stop destruction of 
the world ocean by pollution. Beyond this the Council of Environ- 
mental Quality is enjoined to regulate discharges of military material 
into the seas and to study all aspects of existing national policy con- 
cerning dumping into the sea. Failure to assume this bare minimum 
of responsibility to protect our world against continuing assault of 
thoughtless pollution could be considered the height of folly, for na- 
ture has demonstrated time and again that no creature can continue 
to thrive or even persist engulfed in its own waste products. 
Mr. Chairman, I thank you for this opportunity to join with you in 
supporting these long overdue measures designed to preserve the one 
and only world we and our children live in. 
Mr. Dinerett. Thank you Congressman, that was an excellent state- 
ment. 
Our colleague from the State of Florida, Hon. Don Fuqua would 
now like to present his statement. You may proceed, Congressman. 
STATEMENT OF HON. DON FUQUA, A REPRESENTATIVE IN 
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF FLORIDA 
Mr. Fuqua. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Recent developments have 
magnified the need for this country to take a long and hard look at its 
waste disposal techniques and more especially the disposal of devas- 
tating military weaponry. We cannot get rid of waste by moving it 
