Apparently dissatisfied with the progress which has been made toward protecting the marine and coastal environments from the adverse effects of ocean dumping, Congress passed and on October 20 sent to the president for his signature a bill¹ containing an amendment to the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act that is aimed at banning the dumping of municipal sewage sludge after December 31, 1981. President Carter signed the measure into law on November 4.² The amendment serves to add the weight of statutory authority to an existing provision in the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) ocean dumping regulations prohibiting the issuance of interim permits for sewage sludge dumping beyond that date.³ Congress apparently believed that such an administrative deadline would inevitably yield to pressure from municipal dumpers with the advent of the anticipated surge in sludge production as cities begin full implementation of secondary sewage treatment under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA).

The amendment invites analysis on three counts: first, it contains a potential loophole through which EPA may be able to allow a flotilla of sludge-filled barges to float after the 1981 deadline; secondly, it assumes that economically and technologically feasible alternative methods of sludge disposal can be fully implemented by the current dumpers within four years; and thirdly, while sewage sludge is aesthetically unpalatable and highly visible in the political sense, it represents but a small part of the total volume of potentially harmful material dumped into the oceans around the United States each year.