Radioactive Waste Disposal at Sea: Public Ideas ... - IMO

Knowledge-Based Regime Analysis 63
And let’s stop; let’s control the problem. Prevention, I think, in this case will
be far more economical than trying to cure it after it becomes critical.” 10
In 1968, more than 48 million tons of waste were dumped at 246 sites
in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Ocean dumping
was expected to increase drastically as a result of a future increase in the
U.S. coastal population. The CEQ report stressed the need for preventive
rather than remedial action. Knowledge of economic costs and environmental
impact of ocean dumping was scanty, however, and comparisons
made with disposal alternatives disregarded political and social hindrances
and hoped for technological advances and new methods of recycling.
At subsequent hearings, waste managers pointed to a possible future
scarcity of suitable landfills and a lack of treatment technologies for certain
toxic and other hazardous materials. 11 The CEQ report listed as
“interim alternatives” hauling waste to suitable dumping sites by rail and
reclaiming strip mines and other land for dumping. Permanent alternatives
to ocean dumping, which neither the Council on Environmental Quality
nor legislators gave much attention to later, would be sought through
research authorized as part of legislation and development of environmentally
acceptable and feasible land-based alternatives. 12 President Nixon
practically quoted the CEQ’s findings and policy recommendations in his
statement to the Congress: “In most cases, feasible, economic, and more
beneficial methods of disposal are available. . . . Legislation is needed to
assure that our oceans do not suffer the fate of so many of our inland
waters, and to provide the authority needed to protect our coastal waters,
beaches, and estuaries.” 13
Although the draft bill of the national regulation was prepared and
cleared through the Office of Management and Budget in October of
1970, it was held and announced in the president’s environmental message
to the Congress on February 8, 1971 (Miller 1973, p. 59). In the Message
on the Environment, President Nixon recommended legislation to implement
“a national policy banning unregulated ocean dumping of all materials
and placing strict limits on ocean disposal of any materials harmful
to the environment” (“International Aspects of the 1971 Environmental
Program: Message from President Nixon to the Congress,” p. 254). In
order to complete national legislation, Nixon said, the United States should
work toward getting other nations to adopt and enforce similar measures. 14
The final act similarly said that the Secretary of State and the administration
should pursue international action and cooperation to protect the