245 



national concern and must be fostered if we are not to deplete our resources 

 through waste. Digested sewage sludge dumped oft the Continental Shelf will 

 not be assimilated resulting in a net loss to the total environment. 



On the other hand, the Continental Shelf is conducive to nature's recycling 

 process. Oceanologists agree that the Continental Shelf is a highly productive 

 region of the ocean and its productivity is limited only by the availability of 

 nutrients. Considering this fact, when digested sludge is appled to the ocean, the 

 constituents become beneficial nutrients that enrich the marine ecosystem and 

 enhance aquatic productivity. 



Attention is now called to the "Marine Protection Research and Sanctuaries 

 Act of 1972" (PL^92-532) and the EPA interim regulations which would im- 

 plement the act. 



Section 2(b) of the act requires that all types of material being dumped into 

 ocean waters should be done so as to "prevent or strictly limit the dumping into 

 ocean waters of any material which would adversely affect human health, wel- 

 fare, or amenities to the marine environment, ecological systems, or economic 

 potentialities . . ." In my opinion, the regulations should be addressed to this 

 purpose and should not extend the meaning of the act. The act also lists, in sec- 

 tion 102(a) considerations by which the administrator shall evaluate permit 

 applications. The criteria produced with the interim regulations, however, 

 extend the meaning ol" the act and rephice the considerations of section 102(a) 

 with a set of limitations that fail to consider several major scientific and jKac- 

 tical aspects. If applied generally, they will act to prohibit rather than regulate 

 the use of the ocean as a natural resource. Tliey would also prohibit any bene- 

 ficial aspects from occurring to the ocean environment. For example : 



Section 227.71 of the criteria require toxicity to be established by a 96 hour 

 bioassay, and in turn, this restilt would be divided by 100 (in other words, a 

 safety factor of 100) to reach what is considered a permissable level. The Federal 

 Water Pollution Control Administration in its publication entitled "V.'ater Qual- 

 ity Criteria", recommended that the toxicity of metals shotdd be determined 

 using a 96 hour bioassay and then tentatively suggested that an application 

 factor of .01 be applied for pesticides and metals. This 5 year old suggestion is 

 recognized by the technical community to be a tentative and arbitrary recom- 

 mendation in the absence of suitable scientific information. In the publications : 

 "Water Quality Criteria" by McKee and Wolf and the "Water Quality Criteria 

 Data Book — Volume 3" by the Environmental Protection Agency, no mention is 

 made to utilizing a 96 hour bioassay technique on aquatic species indigenous to 

 the marine environment. Therefore, in the absence of comparative data, each 

 applicant would of necessity have to provide the needed data by virtue of self 

 funded research activities. This results in a waste of manpower and other re- 

 sources through uncoordinated, duplication of effort. 



I sul)mit that this is not intent of the act because it provides that the admin- 

 istrator shall . . . "initiate a comprehensive and continuing program of moni- 

 toring and research regarding the effects of the dumping of material into ocean 

 waters . . ." Overly strict and arbitrary criteria are not a suitable substitute for 

 a continuing pi'Ogram of monitoring and research. The administrators should 

 be enabled therefore to issue permits on a case by case basis, using considerations 

 outlined in the act, until monitoring and research activities provide the basis 

 for reasonable criteria. Where existing scientific studies and data are available, 

 these should be used in lieu of arbitrary criteria. 



I must speak about heavy metals because much of the proposed regulations 

 and criteria address this subject. Keeping in mind the intent of the act is to 

 protect the human health, it would be well to realize that the majority of 

 metals found in sewage sludge do not 'emanate from industry, but are contained 

 rather in domestic sanitary wastes. Patent medicines and health aids, which 

 can be purchased without prescription and are approved by FDA for sale to the 

 public, contain significant concentrations of heavy metals and these eventually 

 pass through the human body or are washed off and end up in sewage sludge. 



Considering all circumstances, it is difficult to see why concentrations of 

 certain heavy metals determined by the 96 hour bioassay procedure to be non- 

 toxic to indigenous marine organisms should be further restricted by additional 

 arbitrary criteria. The requirement that concentrations of mercury and cadmium 

 cannot be greater than one order of magnitude above the background concen- 

 tration in sea water is one of these. No mention or considerations are made 

 for complexing or bound metals. Using the latter criteria. :;he Delaware river 

 should not be allowed to empty into the ocean. 



