lower salinity in addition to waste disposed, the area never supported 

 large benthic populations. This however, cannot be ascertained since 

 base-line data on benthic populations before dumping is not available. 



5. Remote Sensing and Surveillance System for Ocean Dumping Operations 



Recent environmental legislation and concern over the environmental 

 impact of marine waste disposal hastened the improvement and regulation 

 of ocean dumping operations in the Bight. Accurate monitoring and 

 surveillance of dumping is essential for effective discharge of this 

 regulatory responsibility. It is important that the location and status 

 of each dumping activity is known, and that dumping is restricted to 

 the specified area. 



Presently, due to the large volume of waste disposal in the Bight, 

 and because the number of patroling vessels is limited, not all opera- 

 tions are supervised, and ocean dumping is believed to be occurring 

 occasionally in localities other than the prescribed dump areas. The 

 extent and type of such violations, termed "short dumps," is not 

 exactly known. CERC contracted through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 

 N.Y. District with Sperry Rand Co. to study, consider, and evaluate 

 different combinations of navigational , dump detection, and recording 

 subsystems, to create a reliable remote monitoring system. The work by 

 Sperry was completed in 1971; the report is referenced in Literature 

 Cited. Because of the report's specialized technical nature, no analysis 

 is presented here and the interested reader is referred to this original 

 report. Only a summary of the Sperry findings are given. 



Specifically, Sperry Rand Co. considered and evaluated different 

 combinations of navigational, dump detection, and recording subsystems. 

 Navigational subsystems such as differential omega, loran C, loran A, 

 shore-based radar with onboard radar beacons, and shore-based radio 

 direction finders with onboard transmitters, were coupled with dump- 

 detection devices, such as draft-and events -sensors, and recording appa- 

 ratus, such as onboard digital printers and shore-based recording 

 equipment . 



Careful evaluation of candidate systems and of the Corps' require- 

 ments by Sperry, indicated that the preferred system for monitoring 

 ocean dumping operations should utilize loran A for position fixing, an 

 electronically activated dump-detection subsystem, and an onboard digital 

 printer subsystem. For self-propelled dumping vessels, the required 

 system would be installed in one single "black box." This basic system 

 is abbreviated as "LEPS" (for Loran-Events-Loran-Printer-System) . When 

 the dump sensing occurs on a towed barge or scow, the equipment on the 

 towed vessel would be called "SIDS" (for Scow, Indicating Draft System). 



Attractive features of the Sperry recommended System, are its 

 containment in a single tamper-proof "black box," its portability, ease 

 of installation and maintenance, high reliability, high legal effectivity, 

 and simplicity of operation. 



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