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1 3 NEW yORK, MONDAY, MARCH 22. 1993 Chafee, Republican of Rhode Island, .............. fately after the vote: "It is unfortunate that it takes a situation • like we have today with medical waste Sea-Dumprng Ban: Good Politics, washing up on our beaches, to capture the attention of the American public • and of Con ress. But B perhaps it is a But Not Necessartly Good Po iey blessing in disguise, since it has result- , ed in our action today to put a halt to ByMICHAELSPECTER For millions of people from Montauk o Maryland, the broiling summer of 1988 will be hard to forget. It was the lonest year ever recorded. Repulsive rash slicks covered the Eastern shore- dne. And borne upon a tide of public Dutrage, garbage emerged as a poten political issue. tn New York and New Jersey, where most of the waste appeared, health officials closed beaches by the score, depriving sweltering people of relief. Pictures of used syringes, dead dol- phins and human excrement scattered across the sand became a staple of the news. Anger required action. So without registering a single vote of opposition, Congress that fall banned the dumping of sewage into the ocean. The law pro- hib+'^el New York City from dropping ~essed waste into the sea and fficials to find costly new ways rid of it, The Rush to Ban "This is a turning point in human , history," said a euphoric Representa- tive tive William J. Hughes, Democrat of I New Jersey, after the vote. Other offi- : cials agreed, rushing to embrace the law as one of the most important envi- ronmental measures ever enacted. There was just one problem. Ocean dumping had absolutely noth- ing to do with the garbage that washed up on the sand that year. In fact, the problems that caused the mess on the beaches in 1988 - overtaxed sewage systems - were largely ignored, and the health risks they present are as serious as they have ever been. Most scientists agree that using the sea as a garbage can was unpleasant and are pleased that it is no longer legal. But some argue that dumping sewage in the Atlantic Ocean 106 miles from the shore - which saved New j York and other cities billions of dollars over the years - is less hazardous than i Ifp Y.ABT 5lat 4TR6Cr ilA9 BF:F?f I.IBEaATy;ll frnm ihe eeble amm,q,ly: Get belter buildln•wide + I haif the pire C.II Libeny Cahle 2P_'N9I= A!H"1' ~ What Price Cleanup? Serrmd artirle uf a seriev. most of the disposal methods that have replaced it. But Congressional leaders, relying almost solely an the summer's vivid images of filth, pushed through a ban on ocean dumping, As Senator John H. Continued on Page B8, Column I the ocean dumping of sludge." Representative Thomas J. Manton, Democrat of Queens, opposed the act at first, saying It would simply shift waste from sea to land, including land in his own district. But looking back to that time, he recalled: "Nnbody want- ed to discuss the relative risks or the merits. It had been a bad summer, and we all wanted to be able to say we did~ something. So we passed a law. I tried ' to have a debate. And it was like I was~ trying to destroy the planet." Because of the Ocean Dumping Act, New York City spent $2 billion on giant plants that turn processed sewage into fertilizer. The city plans to spend at least $300 million a year over the next decade to dispose of its sludge in this way and in others - many times more than it would cost to dump it in the ocean. . Better Ways to Spend But even some of the ban's most enthusiastic proponents at major envi- ronmental organizations, none of whom would be quoted by name, con- cede that the money might have been better spent on other problems, like fixing the extensive system of storm sewers that caused the waste to wash up on thee beaches in the first place. Indeed, the ocean dumping ban is a striking triumph of environmental poli- tics over science, a clear demonstra- tion of how environmental policy can often be directed by symbols and fears than by reasoned discussion of benefit and risk. In 1998, and still today, the real prob- lem came from New York's aged, 6,200-mile network of sewer pipes that mix household waste with rainwater. Normally, il is all treated together. But during storms, sewage treatment plants are quickly overwhelmed, and sewer pipes carry millions of gallons of raw waste directly to the rivers and harbors surrounding the city. In fact, in the summers since the ban on ocean dumping took effect, officials have closed beaches more often than they did before 1988. "There is no question that the New York City sewer system is the greatest cause of water pollution in the region; that has almost always been true," said Howard Golub, acting directorand chief engineer of the Interstate Sani- tary Commission, a regional regula- tory agency that for 20 years has been trying in vain to convince people to pay attention to the problem. "But a sewer system isn't sexy," he added. "It's expensive to fix, and no-~ body wants to hear about it. So people~ focused on what they understand - and they understand that sewage andl the sea don't seem nice together."

9 The Real Problem "Vallf lower a a Political Dance Modern sewerage usually consists of two systems: storm sewers that carry off excess rainwater, and sanitary sew- ers that handle sewage that needs treatment. But older, combined sys- tems, like New York City's, serve al- most 20 percent of the nation's popula- tion, about 50 million people living in the America's oldest cities. For dec- ades they have been the major cause of beach closings and dangerous levels of bacteria in coastal waters. They gener- ally work well enough in normal times; sewage and ordinary storm drainage are treated together and then dis- charged. 8yring a heavy storm, however, so much water washes into the combined system that it is overwhelmed. The treatment centers cannot handle the load and everything - storm water and sewage - floods untreated out the pipe. To solve the sewer problem, New York would have to build enormous subterranean tanks to hold waste wa- ter- during heavy downpours, and the city Department of Environmental Protection says that could cost several I '' lion dollars. Without them, many ches in the area will continue to be sed after particularly heavy storms. Every time more than three-quarters of an inch of rain falls, 500 milllon gallons of mixed sewage pours into area rivers and harbors, the city says. A report by the State University of New York estimated that sewage over- flows cost New York and New Jersey $3 billion to $7 billion in lost jobs, lost fishing days and forfeited economic opportunities in the previous decade. That report was published in 1989, just as the sewers were flushing sy- ringes and other trash from streets and gutters,onto the beaches. Still, almost nobody seriously questioned the need for an immediate ocean dumping ban. 'Congress Acted on Emotion' As Alan Rubin, a senior Environ- mental Protection Agency official in charge of de'ermining the risks of dis- posing of sewage sludge, put it in a recent interview: "By 1988, ocean dumping had become taboo, about as politically incorrect as any disposal of waste can be. Maybe it was a gbod thing that happened. Maybe not. But it was not decided on the merits. Con- gress acted on emotion, not on data." Those who supported the ban now argue that two rights cannot make a wrong. They say that ocean dumping needed to stop and that bills get passed "en they can, not always when they the most sense. You take care of emergencies '+rst in life and in politics," said Sen~tor Frank R. Lautenberg, the New Jersey Democrat who was a leader in the fight to end ocean dumping. senator Lautenberg agreed that sew- age overflows pose a serious health risk, but he added: "Sludge dumping was the equivalent of a fire we could put out. Just because you have earth- quakes on the horizon doesn't mean you should let the fire rage." Mr. Lautenberg asserted that it was not as clear in 1988 as it is today that storm sewers, not ocean dumping, were to blame for most of the trash that appeared on the beaches. But he did agree that the barges heading out to sea provided an image that was too useful to ignore. "There is simply a point when you have to look at the broader picture," he said. "When we passed the law, it was at the height of a couple of ugly sea- sons. The waste may not have been a direct result of the ocean dumping, but it did alert people to the fact that we need to stop pouring garbage into the ocean." Unsavory Practice Where to Put A City's Sludge Few people are genuinely unhappy about the demise of a practice in which 1.5 billion gallons of distilled sewage sludge was dumped each day 106 miles off the coast of New Jersey. Even those who say it makes sense to consider using the deep sea to store dangerous wastes acknowledge that the sludge was beginning to find its way into the food chain nn the ocean floor. And while most industrial waste, heavy metals and dangerous contami- nants were removed from the sludge before it was dumped in the ocean, it was never possible to extract all the poisons found in a huge sewage system. For decades, New York dropped its sludge only 12 miles off the coast - turning vast aquatic reaches into home to nothing but slime. Environmental- ists fought for years to end ocean dumping. As a compromise, the Fed- eral Government decided to permit New York and several neighboring cit- ies to shift its dumping to the edge of the continental shelf, where E.P.A. offi- cials said it would do no harm. But even at 106 miles, where there is no scientific proof that waste disposal causes illness in humans, ocean dump- ing of waste has proven to be less than ideal. Although researchers first thought sludge dumped there would never reach the bottom of the ocean, scientists now know that some of it does. And when it gets there, it is eaten by animals that are eventually eaten by man. Troubles Elsewhere. But scientists argue that it may be just as troublesome to dump the sludge anywhere else. Sludge in landfilis can I seep into ground water. Even benefi- '~cial uses, like turning sewage to fertil- izer, costs millions in processing and , shipping. Whatever the ancillary benefits the ocean dumping ban may have offered, it also cost New York a great deal of money. And many officials now say that money could have been put to far better use by trying to resolve the more complicated - and pressing - dilem- ma ma caused by combined sewer over- I flows. "Am I sad that we no longer dump sludge in the Atlantic Ocean? Absolute- ly not;" said Albert F. Appleton, com- missioner of New York City's Depart- ment of Environmental Protection, He i has made clean water a major focus of his tenure. "In a perfect world we simply wouldn't dump our waste at sea. But is that how I would have spent our next $2 billion? Never in a million years." Other Solutions A Victory Draws Questions Tough new laws passed since the mess of 1988 govern the disposal of medical waste. So syringes and intra- venous bags no longer show up on beaches with much frequency, And Coast Guard boats now skim coastal waters for other visible debris. But the levels of microscopic organisms that the E.P.A. considers harmful to ht;- mans and fish - the real problem - are no less serious than they have ever been. "When environmentalists see a prob= lem thcy tend to say, 'Let's have a totat solution,"' Mr. Appleton said. "They don't say, 'How much bang can we get for our buck?' They don't say, 'Where is the garbage going to go if it isn't tv the ocean?"" , Mr. Appleton certainly considers, himself an environmentalist. But he and many others like him say the movement risks its credibility by plac- ing so much emphasis on crowd-pleas- ing maneuvers like the ban on ocean dumping. Nina Sankovitch, a senior project lawyer at the Natural Resources De= fense Council who worked for the ocean dumping ban, countered: "Enviroo- mentalists have a huge agenda. Is dumping sludge worse than burning garbage? Is money spent on recycling better than money spent on clean wa- ter? ter? There aren't answers to those questions. So when we have the oppor, tunity to improve the environment we go for it. And the Ocean Dumping Ban Act was a great opportnity." opportunity." Ms. Sankovitch says she now focuses much of her attention on the problem of combined sewers. But she said she sees nothing wrong with using the images of 1988 to help ban dumping - even though the two problems were not con- nected.

1 4 ~ ' Sea-DumpingBan: P litr ~ ~ o es ~ ~ Produced a Disputed Policy G~- C'onunued From Page Al • • Dnn Nog.n ChakfRhe New York Time Workers cleaned up sewage in May 1987, top, at the Island Beach State Park in Berkeley, NJ. Raw sewage, above, entered the Hudson River in June 1984 from a pipe on 125th Street in Manhattan.

Tttr; iVSW YORK TIMSS NATIANAI. MONDAY, MARCH 22,0, Otficials closed Smith Point Beach on Fire Island in July 1988 after syringe$ and needles were found in the water. 666£tV~VLOZ