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from here to there. It has only just come to wide public notice that we 
are running out of places to safely dispose of our military hardware. 
In response to the great need for study and subsequent guidelines 
for weaponry disposal, I have joined with several of my colleagues 
in introducing legislation that will serve to require the Council on 
Environmental Quality to make a full and complete investigation and 
study of national policy with respect to the discharging of material 
into the oceans. Additional legislation will require a certification by 
the Council on Environmental Quality before any military materials 
are discharged into any of the navigable waters. 
These measures should not be viewed as stopgap but as a national 
commitment to end the dilatory procedures that prevented the mili- 
tary from effectively detoxifying lethal nerve gas before it was neces- 
sary to dispose of it under the ocean at the possible expense of the 
safety of sea life and man. The Council on Environmental Quality 
has the needed expertise and manpower to authoritatively recommend 
national policy on the disposal of wastes into the environment. The 
need for rendering these materials harmless to man and inoffensive to 
the ecological balance of nature is great indeed. 
Thank you for the opportunity to present these comments in sup- 
port of this most urgent legislation. 
Mr. Dincetu. An excellent presentation, Congressman. 
The next witness will be the gentleman from New York, the Honor- 
able James M. Hanley. 
STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES M. HANLEY, A REPRESENTATIVE IN 
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK 
Mr. Hanury. Thor Heyerdahl, during his recent transatlantic 
voyage on the papyrus reed boat a, sent back disturbing news that 
at almost no time during his historic journey was the ocean free from 
floating debris and serious pollution. The situation at times was so 
bad that Heyerdahl and his crew were reluctant to wash in the filthy 
water. He contrasted this situation with his famous voyage on the 
Kon Tiki several years ago when he found that, on the whole, the 
oceans were clean and wholesome. 
Bolstering this visual image with scientific investigations, the world- 
renowned expert on ocean life, Jacques Cousteau, recently sounded 
the warning that life in the oceans is slowly dying because of increased 
pollution. 
Closer to home, in my own State, an area of several square miles of 
ocean where New York City has been dumping refuse has been de- 
clared dead. Not dying—dead. Nothing alive was found. 
The impact on ocean life of pollution from the nations of the world 
is just beginning to be fully appreciated. The initial findings are 
alarming indeed. Few of us fully realize that a very large proportion 
of the oxygen in our atmosphere is generated by organisms in the 
ae Kall them and you kill animal life on the land—including human 
eings. 
The recent dumping of large supplies of poison gas into the ocean 
dramatized one aspect of ocean pollution: the large-scale dumping 
