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

74 Chapter 5
hegemons give to egoistic self-interest, this chapter shows that ocean dumping
was perceived as an international and even a global environmental problem
by Congress and by the Nixon administration in the early 1970s.
Through a series of hearings intended to attract public attention and to
encourage legislative action, a group of legislators who claimed that they
were “trying to clean up the oceans” 2 established domestic regulation. To
influence and move public opinion and political leaders, nationally and
internationally, congressional hearings spread the simple, powerful idea
that “the oceans are dying.” To supplement domestic regulation, it was
argued, the United States should also work toward agreement on a global
ocean dumping regime.
Supporting the claim made by realists and power theorists, introduction
of ocean dumping regulation domestically created significant pressure in
the United States for some sort of global regulation able to harmonize the
economic costs of environmental protection across countries. But the realist
proposition that the United States would be motivated solely by egoistic
self-interest and a need to vigorously protect the national interest does
not conform well to this case. Political leaders wanted the United States to
persuade other countries to follow by setting a good example and demonstrating
willingness to act against ocean dumping.
Congressional Hearings on Ocean Dumping
The U.S. Department of the Army’s disposal of some 65 tons of nerve gas
in the Atlantic Ocean off Florida in the summer of 1969 focused national
and international attention on the problem of unregulated ocean dumping
of supposedly extremely dangerous materials. 3 In the words of one congressman
(Congressional Record: House, September 8, 1971, p. 30854):
“The nerve gas dumping incident reverberated around the world and
focused public opinion on the need for legislation.” 4 In August of 1970,
despite national and international protests, the Army disposed of surplus
nerve gas rockets embedded in concrete vaults on the ocean floor deep
under international waters. 5 “A major incident,” wrote Robert Smith
(1970) in the New York Times. Concerned about this dumping practice,
the UN Seabed Committee made an after-the-fact “appeal to all governments
to refrain from using the seabed and ocean floor as a dumping
ground for toxic, radioactive and other noxious material which might cause