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ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS JANUARY 1981 -- DECEMBER 1983 ON ADMINISTRATION OF THE MARINE PROTECTION, RESEARCH, AND SANCTUARIES ACT OF 1972, AS AMENDED (P.L. 92-532) AND IMPLEMENTING THE INTERNATIONAL LONDON DUMPING CONVENTION
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This report continues EPA's reporting to Congress on the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act. Several familiar tables have been translated into graphs and other figures in this report in order to show the progress made in the first ten years of the program. Both the tables and the graphs are expressed for the first 10 years, 1973 – 1983. 1. Quantities of waste materials dumped during CY 1981 - 1983 2. Types and amounts of ocean disposal nationwide (in approximate thousand tons) 1973 – 1983. 3. Summary of Region II Ocean Dumping Permittees/Applicants denied or phased out in Region II 1973 – 1983. Tables presented include: 1. The Types and amounts of ocean disposal by geographic and coastal areas in approximate 1,000 tons (Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico) for the period 1973 – 1983. 2. Summary of ocean dumping permittees denied or phased out, by Region for the 10 year time period. 3. A table of ocean dumping permit tees phased out during the report period Jan. 1981 – Dec. 1983. 4. Table of the contracting parties to the London Dumping Convention as of December 1983. 5. Table of enforcement actions taken during the reporting period. In February 1980, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) filed suit challenging the interim site designations. As a result, EPA and the NWF reached a Consent Agreement wherein EPA agreed to prepare and issue 22 EIS’s on 46 sites. In this report, two table are given explaining the Agency’s EIS and site designation status for both consent agreement sites and non-consent agreement sites. Maps of the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Pacific coasts, American Samoa, Hawaii, and Alaska show dredged material and “other” material sites. The OSV ANTELOPE monitored 15 separate surveys between Portland, ME, and Brownsville, TX. Included were the Gulf Ocean Incineration Site and the North Atlantic Incineration Site. EPA surveyed a radioactive waste disposal site in Massachusetts Bay, which received waste between 1946 and 1958. Controversy about sites located off Tampa, FL, resulted in field surveys to find new locations. The existing interim Sites A and B were determined to be unsuitable because of hard bottom areas containing coral growth. A map is given of the Tampa Bay area showing existing and the alternative offshore sites. Incineration at sea continued in the Gulf of Mexico with 2 burns. As a result of public concerns, and after several public hearings, Congress requested the Office of Water promulgate specific regulations for incineration at sea.