Public Law 87-88 , passed in 1961, was an amendment of the basic 

 Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1956 which extended pollution 

 abatement to navigable interstate and coastal waters, and the Oil Pollu - 

 tion Control Act , passed the same year (Public Law 87-167), implemented 

 the provisions of the 1954 International Convention for the Prevention 

 of the Pollution of the Sea by Oil . 



In addition to water quality legislation, the Fish and Wildlife 

 Coordination Act , of 1965, amended and revised earlier versions of 

 legislation dealing with conservation of living marine and wildlife re- 

 sources, and emphasized the importance of harmonious planning, develop- 

 ment, maintenance, and coordination of wildlife conservation with other 

 features of water resource development. 



Subsequent amendments to the basic water pollution control laws were 

 the Water Quality Act of 1965 (Public Law 89-234), the Clean Water Res- 

 toration Act of 1966 (Public Law 89-753), and the Water Quality Improve- 

 ment Act of 1970 (Public Law 91-224). The National Environmental Policy 

 Act of 1969 (Public Law 91-190) specified as a national policy additional 

 guidelines of environmental quality, and established the Council on 

 Environmental Quality (CEQ) in the Executive Office of the President. 

 Section 102 of the National Environmental Policy Act directs all Federal 

 agencies to prepare statements of environmental impact on all major ac- 

 tions having a significant impact on the quality of the human environment. 



The Water Quality Improvement Act of 1970 provided legislation to 

 control oil pollution, and the discharge of hazardous substances into 

 the waters of the United States. The Act provides procedures for the 

 abatement of pollution which violates water quality standards, endangers 

 the ecology, or damages important marine economic resources. An import- 

 ant provision of this Act is the creation of the Office of Environmental 

 Quality to provide support to the Council of Environmental Quality, es- 

 tablished pursuant to Public Law 91-190. 



As indicated above, ocean dumping was, until recently, controlled in 

 the New York Bight by the Corps of Engineers through the 1899 River and 

 Harbors Act, the 1905 River and Harbor Act and the 1888 New York Harbor 

 Act. Because of the navigational aspects of these statutes, the role of 

 the Corps of Engineers and its authority to consider the environmental 

 factors of ocean dumping have been contested. 



In 1972, New York State sought court action against the Department 

 of the Army (U. S. District Court, Southern District of New York, 12 

 January 1972), claiming that permits to dump in the ocean are issued as 

 a matter of routine and no evaluation is made of the effects of dumping 

 upon the environment. Sections 102 (a) and 102 (b) of the National 

 Environmental Policy Act -/ere interpreted by the State of New York as 

 not being sufficiently clear, entitling the State to mandamus compelling 

 the Army Corps of Engineers to consider pollution effects prior to per- 

 mitting dumping of sewage sludge and dredge spoil in the New York Bight. 

 The court decided that the Corps of Engineers had indeed recognized the 



