become increasingly serious. Monitoring of the specic types of chemical
wastes shipped to sea by state or federal officials has been rudimentary and, in
many cases, nonexistent, primarily because of the lack of clear—cut juris—
dictional authority. Official control today is particularly difcult, since most
industrial wastes are disposed of at least 15 miles from shore—a distance well
beyond the three—mile territorial sea over which the United States claims le—
gal authority.
Information about chemical waste disposal off the shores of other countries is sketchy, but data gathered during the late 1960s indicates that the
practice in some has already reached serious proportions. West Germany, for
example, was disposing of some 40 tons of chlorinated hydrocarbon materials
each month in the Atlantic during this period [29]. Other wastes dumped at
sea by that country included 375 tons of sulfuric acid each day, 750 tons of
iron sulfate a day, 200,000 tons of gypsum per year, and single large dis—
charges of arsenic residues. Ocean discharges from the North Pier, Hook of
Holland, contained 1500 tons per year of nitric acid and fatty acids, and 1700
tons per year of metal—pickling bath wastes containing aluminum, iron, chro—
mic chromium, sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, and cyanide. English vessels
carried a million tons of power plant ash residue and two million tons of coal
mine wastes to dumping grounds off the northeast coast of England. In 1970,
a team of Norwegian and Swedish scientists reported that a wide stretch of
the Atlantic from Greenland to the Arctic Ocean north of Finland bore
traces of polychlorinated alipathic hydrocarbons—unwanted byproducts of
plastics production—. that had been dumped at sea off both Europe and the
United States [30]. In areas where the chemicals were concentrated, the sea
was red with dead plankton, including small crustaceans—important members
of the marine food chain. At some of the test areas, where plankton were not
killed outright, the photosynthetic capacity of plants was reduced.
The dumping of waste containers, castoff military hardware, and other
junk has interfered with shing in a number of areas of the world, according
to a 1971 report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization:
Wrecked cars and other junk have hampered shing—particularly in the North
Sea and the Baltic—by mechanical damage to nets and boats, and good shing
areas have been closed because of the danger from dumped military wastes
such as explosives, cyanide compounds, biological and chemical warfare
agents, and radioactive wastes. In the NorthSea and along the Norwegian
Shelf, dumped industrial waste has recently caused great concern to shermen.
One trawler recovered as many as eight containers in one day, about half of
which were leaking out their contents of halogenated hydrocarbons and other
toxicants. A similar situation has been reported to exist around the japanese is—
lands [31].
.…
The relentless and often poorly understood effects of tide and current
make the dumping of hazardous wastes risky. During the summer of 1969,
'
several incidents occurred in the southern Baltic in which shermen were in—
jured by World War 11 mustard gas released from gas bombs they hauled up
To Ocean from Air and Surface Waters
79
wastes shipped to sea by state or federal officials has been rudimentary and, in
many cases, nonexistent, primarily because of the lack of clear—cut juris—
dictional authority. Official control today is particularly difcult, since most
industrial wastes are disposed of at least 15 miles from shore—a distance well
beyond the three—mile territorial sea over which the United States claims le—
gal authority.
Information about chemical waste disposal off the shores of other countries is sketchy, but data gathered during the late 1960s indicates that the
practice in some has already reached serious proportions. West Germany, for
example, was disposing of some 40 tons of chlorinated hydrocarbon materials
each month in the Atlantic during this period [29]. Other wastes dumped at
sea by that country included 375 tons of sulfuric acid each day, 750 tons of
iron sulfate a day, 200,000 tons of gypsum per year, and single large dis—
charges of arsenic residues. Ocean discharges from the North Pier, Hook of
Holland, contained 1500 tons per year of nitric acid and fatty acids, and 1700
tons per year of metal—pickling bath wastes containing aluminum, iron, chro—
mic chromium, sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, and cyanide. English vessels
carried a million tons of power plant ash residue and two million tons of coal
mine wastes to dumping grounds off the northeast coast of England. In 1970,
a team of Norwegian and Swedish scientists reported that a wide stretch of
the Atlantic from Greenland to the Arctic Ocean north of Finland bore
traces of polychlorinated alipathic hydrocarbons—unwanted byproducts of
plastics production—. that had been dumped at sea off both Europe and the
United States [30]. In areas where the chemicals were concentrated, the sea
was red with dead plankton, including small crustaceans—important members
of the marine food chain. At some of the test areas, where plankton were not
killed outright, the photosynthetic capacity of plants was reduced.
The dumping of waste containers, castoff military hardware, and other
junk has interfered with shing in a number of areas of the world, according
to a 1971 report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization:
Wrecked cars and other junk have hampered shing—particularly in the North
Sea and the Baltic—by mechanical damage to nets and boats, and good shing
areas have been closed because of the danger from dumped military wastes
such as explosives, cyanide compounds, biological and chemical warfare
agents, and radioactive wastes. In the NorthSea and along the Norwegian
Shelf, dumped industrial waste has recently caused great concern to shermen.
One trawler recovered as many as eight containers in one day, about half of
which were leaking out their contents of halogenated hydrocarbons and other
toxicants. A similar situation has been reported to exist around the japanese is—
lands [31].
.…
The relentless and often poorly understood effects of tide and current
make the dumping of hazardous wastes risky. During the summer of 1969,
'
several incidents occurred in the southern Baltic in which shermen were in—
jured by World War 11 mustard gas released from gas bombs they hauled up
To Ocean from Air and Surface Waters
79