forms of aquatic life, which are eaten by small fish; the small fish are eaten by bigger fish, and as the mercury moves up the food chain, it becomes more and more concentrated. In a body of water containing .00001 parts of mercury per million, the food-fish might contain 10 parts per million. Tuna and swordfish have large amounts, in part because both are wide-ranging predators, at the top of long foodchains.

We should have been alerted before this to the danger of mercury. In Japan, between 1953 and 1960, at least 43 people died and scores were permanently disabled-suffering blindness, deafness, convulsions, coma, mental retardation-from eating fish caught in a bay where a plastics factory had been dumping mercury.

In the 1950's, Sweden discovered that mercury was responsible for her dwindling bird population, and that her fresh-water fish were contaminated. The Government there has banned the use of mercurytreated seed, and recommends that people eat no more than one fish meal a week.

Pollution has many sources. This applies to the disposal of industrial wastes and sewage from urban communities, insecticides, and fertilizers from land runoff, seepage of petroleum from offshore drilling, as well as the pollutants that accumulate in the marine food chain since many species of fish and other marine biota tend to inhabit the relatively shallow areas of the ocean.

This bill, which I am pleased to cosponsor, states clearly that it is the policy of the United States "to regulate the dumping of all types of material in the oceans, coastal and other waters and to prevent or vigorously limit the dumping into oceans, coastal, and other waters of any material which could adversely affect human health, welfare, or amenities, or the marine environment, ecological systems, or economic potentialities."

In addition, the bill provides for the means of making this policy a reality.

It is also my hope that our private industries will voluntarily do everything possible to limit pollution. We have already seen many instances of such action. In one instance, for example, the Dow Chemical Co. in Midland, Mich., has prevented waste through such steps as recycling raw materials. It has made each man-"right down to the janitor" accountable for pollution, using the rule: "If you mess it up, you clean it up." Dow has attached the same emergency-type importance to a pollution incident as to a fire, explosion, or personal injury. Two years ago when the program started, Dow's monitors turned up 1,100 potential pollution problems. Three hundred of them serious enough to require immediate action-such as the fact that contaminants sometimes get into cooling water. Last year Dow spent $800,000 to put in a system with devices that can sense contaminants in the cooling water and immediately divert the water into a 50-million gallon pond. There it is treated before it is allowed to get back into the Tittaba wassee River.

There are many other instances of such private initiative. It is my hope that a bill such as the one we are discussing today, and private efforts by business and industry, can together help us to ease this major problem of water pollution.

For too long we have ignored this question. It is now essential that we act as quickly as possible to gain some of the valuable time we have lost.

Mr. LENNON. That was an excellent statement, Mr. Kemp. We certainly appreciate your efforts.

Now I would like to call the gentleman from Massachusetts, the very able Silvio Conte.

STATEMENT OF HON. SILVIO O. CONTE, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS

Mr. CONTE. I wish to thank the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries for the opportunity to express my support for H.R. 805 and H.R. 3662, two bills which I cosponsored, that deal with the serious problems of dumping waste materials into the oceans.

The dangers of indiscriminate dumping are very grave as I am sure this committee is aware. Thousands of square miles of ocean have been reduced to lifelessness, with a resulting threat not only to the economy of the fishing industry, but to health and even life itself.

We know now that the depositing of waste materials in certain of the Great Lakes was responsible for their present lifelessness and, indeed, poisonous condition. If we continue to pollute our oceans at the present rate, it is only a matter of time before they, too, cease to support life.

Scientists may disagree about the extent to which the oceans are now polluted, and they may disagree as to how long the oceans can absorb an increasing quantity of waste without serious and perhaps permanent harm. There is substantial agreement, however, on two facts. First, there is a limit to the amount of waste that the oceans can absorb over a given period of time. Second, even the waste now being dumped in the oceans is producing effects which are not evident and visible, but which are real, nonetheless, and will have consequences which cannot now be foreseen.

Mr. Chairman, your committee has a number of bills before it dealing with this matter, and eventually you will draw the conclusions as to which of these bills will best serve the interest of our Nation.

I wish at this time to urge you to support a strong bill that will reflect what I feel is a newer and tougher sentiment in Congress regarding pollution. I assure you that there exists in this country a vast constituency which would not only support, but which wholeheartedly desires, such legislation.

I believe that both H.R. 805 and H.R. 3662 are strong, responsible bills. There are differences between them which I shall not discuss at this time. These differences are matters of degree since both bills have substantially the same thrust.

Both H.R. 805 and H.R. 3662 would have the Federal Government set standards with regard to dumping, require permits or licenses to be obtained before dumping is allowed, and provide for penalties should violations occur.

These two bills deserve your careful consideration. I recommend them to you and urge you to either give one of them your approval, or else to devise a measure which in your view embodies the best elements of both of these proposals.

Thank you.

Mr. LENNON. We also thank you for an excellent presentation. I understand the gentleman from Arizona, the Honorable John J. Rhodes, would like to give a very brief statement at this time.

STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN J. RHODES, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ARIZONA

Mr. RHODES. Mr. Chairman, as a cosponsor of the legislation before you today I appreciate the opportunity to speak on behalf of these bills proposing a limit on the dumping of hazardous materials into

our coastal waters.

I do not believe that pollution must be the end product of our Nation's industry. I believe this country can conquer the menace of environmental pollution as it has other problems in the past. However, in order to do this there will have to be legislation enacted by Congress.

Presently there are no effective standards to regulate the dumping of waste products in our coastal waters. No one wishing to dump waste products is required to demonstrate that the material is harmless. We must have effective standards now. I hope that this committee will act favorably on this legislation as soon as possible.

Mr. LENNON. Thank you very much, Mr. Rhodes.

I note two other Members of Congress would like to give statements. Would Congressman Mikva please take the witness chair?

STATEMENT OF HON. ABNER J. MIKVA, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS

Mr. MIKVA. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

The sea stirs the spirit of man. In many respects, it is the last unexplored and untouched region of the earth. Its vastness defies the imagination; its savage independence frustrates our feeble attempts to tame it. Yet man is slowly killing the majestic oceans by quietly and relentlessly dumping his garbage into the sea.

It is not fair to say that the problem is only beginning. Many areas of our coastal waters are already irrevocably contaminated. The New York Bight is a prime example. A study conducted by the U.S. Marine Laboratory at Sandy Hook, N.J., and completed last year indicates that 40 years of dumping has destroyed the marine ecosystem and rendered most of the area uninhabitable for any sea life. The bight is appropriately referred to as "The Dead Sea.”

The prevalence of disease and contamination, which not only threatens the Atlantic coastal fisheries, but also gravely endangers public health, was indicated by studies conducted in this area. More than a dozen species of fish captured in the befouled area of the bight were suffering from a disease known as fin rot. Lobsters and crabs exposed under laboratory conditions to the same pollutants as are pouring daily into the bight developed a fouling of their bronchial chambers and gills. The test animals all perished in 3 to 4 days. A report recently prepared by M. Grant Gross, Research Oceanographer at the Marine Sciences Center, State University of New York at Stony Brook, warns of high concentrations of a number of toxic and cancer

causing elements. If these elements enter or have entered the food chain, we are faced with a serious hazard to public health. Studies conducted by a group of scientists under the direction of the Smithsonian Institute substantiate these terrible conclusions.

Unfortunately, the situation in the New York Bight is not an isolated phenomenon. Commercial fisheries have collapsed all along the Atlantic shore because of the deterioration of previously abundant fishing grounds. There are some 49 dumps off the populous East Coast and all of them pose a continuing threat to the health of the Atlantic and to the livelihood of those who depend on it. If left alone, things are only going to get worse. As sanitary landfill sights become more crowded and less practical, the ocean is fast becoming the cheapest and most convenient garbage dump for many coastal cities. If our oceans are to remain a source of food, esthetic pleasure, and sheer wonder for future generations, then we must stop treating them like a gigantic open sewer. It is for this reason that I vigorously endorse H.R. 2581, a bill introduced by my colleague from Massachusetts, Mr. Harrington. This bill represents an important initial step toward reducing ocean pollution. The proposal authorizes the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, in conjunction with the Seeretary of the Interior and the Chief of the Army Corps of Engineers, to promulgate standards designed to protect the delicate marine ecology of our coastal waters. It then requires any potential dumper within a 12-mile limit of U.S. shores to demonstrate that such dumping will not violate these standards. In short, this legislation puts the burden where it should be-on the dumper-to show that the dumping of his garbage is not detrimental to marine life.

While H.R. 2581 is vital to the attack on ocean pollution, it will not eliminate the problem. It unquestionably makes it more difficult for polluters, but it does not preclude further pollution. Cities could simply take their garbage past the 12-mile limit and dump it or they may attempt to evade the law through nighttime or clandestine dumpings. I personally favor an outright ban against ocean dumping. The United States should prohibit American citizens or vessels from dumping any deleterious matter into any ocean. Such a unilateral declaration could prompt other nations to follow suit. The International Oceanographic Commission established by UNESCO in 1961 is a prime example of international cooperation to stop the contamination of international waters. The organization is now sponsoring a program of research on the Mediterranean Sea, involving some 20 nations including the U.S.S.R., Israel, Syria, and the United States. The mutual cooperation of these normally antagonistic nations demonstrates the pragmatism of international policing of our seas.

Ultimately, however, the problem is one of solid waste disposal. We in America have developed a throwaway society of historic proportions. With sheer arrogance born of obsession with convenience, we use things once and throw them away, not caring or realizing that all that garbage piling up has to go somewhere-whether to an incinerator, a landfill site, or some body of water. All three alternatives are unsatisfactory. The final solution is recycling, and we must begin to implement ways of reutilizing our resources before we are inundated with our own waste.

The sea has played a great spiritual role in the history of man, and I would hate to see it die of our own neglect. But that is what is happening. No event dramatizes this fact better than the voyage of Thor Heyderdahl who traversed the Atlantic in a small papyrus boat. This brave man, like Leif Erickson, Columbus, and Magellan before him challenged the sea and, by enduring the pain and brutality of the Atlantic, conquered it. And yet thousands of lonely miles at sea the water was sometimes so full of oil and other junk that bathing was impossible. What a sad commentary on the imprint man has made on his earth.

Mr. LENNON. Thank you for a very interesting and informative statement.

Our next witness will be the Honorable Lawrence Coughlin, a very able Member of Congress from the State of Pennsylvania.

STATEMENT OF HON. LAWRENCE COUGHLIN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA

Mr. COUGHLIN. I am pleased to testify today on a bill, H.R. 805, that provides specific Federal authority to enforce waste disposal regulations and curb ocean pollution within a 12-mile limit of the shoreline of the United States. The ultimate goal of this legislation is to contribute to the improvement of the ocean environment by allowing only that matter into the oceans that is essentially inert or which could be assimilated without adverse effects.

As cosponsor of this bill, I recognize that we cannot undo with one law what has been allowed to happen over the many decades. I feel, however, that we as Federal legislators must initiate action that will enable the United States to make meaningful contributions toward ending rampant pollution of the very basis of our life on earth-the oceans.

The President's Council on Environmental Quality in its October 1970 report indicates to what degree the cavalier dumping of wastes off our shores has affected our environment and our economy. Closing of beaches and bays has become so commonplace that it is accepted almost as a fact of life in the United States today. Many of us in the Congress have supported legislation to protect and increase the use of recreation areas in and around the coastal waters of the country. Yet, our efforts in this field cannot succeed in any reasonable measure until we abate the wholesale polluting of these coastal waters. According to the Council, about 48 million tons of waste were dumped at sea in 1968. Dredge spoils accounted for 80 percent by weight of all our ocean dumping. The Army Corps of Engineers estimated about 34 percent, or 13 million tons, of the material was polluted.

In 1969, sewage sludge dumped in the New York Bight, an area encompassing the New York Harbor and adjacent coastal areas, had an oxygen demand of approximately 70,000 tons. Tests conducted on wastes taken from this area contained bacteria that cause hepatitis in man.

All of us are aware of the reports of mercury and DDT which are harged from industrial plants or run off from our lands, flow into ams and rivers, and eventually find their way into the ocean.