178 



Senator Stevens. I am led to believe that the loncr-teim problem 

 with the vast increase in the tanker traffic that the world nuist contem- 

 plate at the present time, the long-range problem is the problem of 

 treating the ballast as it is exchanged for the oil that is being taken on 

 board at the place where it is loaded. 



Does the convention deal with a specific standard of parts per mil- 

 lion that will be permitted as far as the cleaning process of the ballast 

 as it is returned to the sea ? 



Mr. Train. As far as discharge is concerned, yes; there are limita- 

 tions. 



Senator Stevens. "V^T^iat is the standard ? 



Mr. Tr.\in. For tankers tlie limit is not in parts pei- million but 

 rather in total amount of cargo permi'!ed to be discharged. The cur- 

 rent draft restricts that discharge to 1/15,000 of the cargo for tankers 

 below 100,000 deadweight tons, and 1/30,000 of the cargo for tank- 

 ers above 100,000 deadweight tons. For general cargo ships the dis- 

 charge limit in the current draft is 100 parts per million. 



Senator Stevens. I ask that because we had some witnesses here last 

 week or 2 weeks ago who indicated that the state of the art is not quite 

 in tune with the desires of the persons making the standard. 



Mr. Train. I would like to defer, Senator Stevens, to the next wit- 

 ness, who I believe would be much better informed on this technical 

 question than I am. 



Senator Stevens. Haven't you been drafting the convention, work- 

 ing with these people in tlie international sense? 



Mr. Train. I have not attended the preparatory meetings, no, sir. 



Senator Stevens. I beg your pardon ? 



Mr. Train. I did attend the IMCO Conference in London in con- 

 nection with the creation of the Marine Protection Committee. 



Senator Stevens. Thank you. I appreciate your testimony. 



Senator Hollings. Are there any suggestions about utilizing NASA 

 satellites for policing? A witness who was studying navigational 

 flows and winds in the Atlantic recently told us that he said he 

 couldn't dip his toothbrush in the mid-Atlantic without getting oil on 

 it. Under the sheen test, the oil could be spilled all the way across 

 the Atlantic. 



On this point, we also heard Dr. White testify about weather satel- 

 lites, satellites tliat might be in space and could, if I understood cor- 

 rectly, actually pick out oil spills and identify them as coming from 

 a particular vessel. 



When we are coming around to this kind of enforcement, is that in 

 the computer coming down the road somewhere ? 



Mr. Train. I expect it is. I expect it is still a ways off. There has 

 been experimental work of this kind done. I think satellite surveil- 

 lance provides in the long term an excellent international tool for 

 surveillance, and provision of information to an international body 

 such as IMCO and to the member states directly. 



Senator Stevens. I am very interested in this. Mr. Ti-ain. because 

 Alaska is unique. We are the place that is going to be loading oil in 

 the country, and everyone else is going to receive it. Apparently the 

 American attitude is that they don't care what happens to the oil 

 that is contained in the ballast because that is going to be unloaded 

 somewhere else. We are the only ones unloading ballast, and we are 



