Document 6BKr99awp4MebwEKMae6ejgL9

v.n'*' - - eSea THE WALL STREET JOURNAL October 2, 1973 ; !" Backtrafcking fSe'this;' howedfer; only dem onstrates how limited knowledge is about pollu tion^ of the sea, and. as in many an unpoUsheC OgQ(*A< Behind the indifference and uhawareness of hTmm mn MtfAJl it.: :inos(tf jlfcople and many, governments lies the IsEnorm'dus Threat^ ButT^ew Peop|e p/ /most unfathomable' difficulty: a great gap in ''scientific' knowledge about pollution of the peasrAgush of research follchw/ng oil.spills of the J960S barely has begun to. lay fhe^ground- 1wbrk for decades of study needed before people can knpw 4st ,what pollutants gre iij the sea. flow much there is of theps,', where they go once 'Scfeiltific |*-lUrtipefy5r^t^ |$dds there and what effect they eventually will have l fhe `Proilfen i{ `B4siri($s as bn life in the oceans and on land- - jc, Panoply of Pollutants v ' "Despite broad general^onsensus.about the ts-> > Pending ;AIiilihilatIoh, Ytontaminants,;.whi<d -r-epresent -the, greatest > I ' - -- [ { S 1^`i - J/' threat of global pollution,'' says Robert M. H )KfwifrV. DangeroUs 1 Is Oil Slick? 'White, head of the National Oceanic ^nd At'inoapheric Admini'straUbh, ."knowledge pf their 71 rail exlenL ;their /ate and ;tiieir lmpAct^on the . I mI< ` I Sit >-> a I.% -jg 'tHf*-CR8By Barry Newman? itfL *--in 'In t Stall Reporter of the Wall Street Journal . tti `Jt Is the last pollution m i . . 1 .! bfcean ecpsystem js scanty, at begt."^ ;|fhat.is known is that in the most intense in Stances of contamination around coastal areas, pollution kifis??The evidence 5s cteArs enough 'Last to' seep into public cjjhsciousnfcsst last to 4e.treated -by the rule of lawj^last to be ana from the quick depth of maripe li/e after larger 1 oil spills, the fact that 30%, of'fhis country's lyzed by science. _ " */ ' clam and oyster, beds are fouled .i)yKhuman wastes, and the near absence of Jife in(harbors It is the last pollution because it is into the oceans--the ultimate sewer--that all the waste/5 of man that aren't piled or'btirfed on land must find their way. And it is the last pol lution because if the oceans--source of most striken by a panoply of pollutants., -a H t - The body of knowledge is growing steadily, fed by platoons of scientists iff dozens of gov ernment, University and industry laboratories. But every new revelation seerris tC open a Pan oxygen--Are poisoned, life on earth as we know dora's box of qtiestions and contradicdbns. it cannot go on. - iO- 3!' given basic statistics on jthe amount of oil The enormity !of the prosjject has led some entering the sea via spills have varied iprildly. to statements like these: ,/ ' . Now those unreliable estimates are themselves Sen. Ernest F. Hollings: "We,are killing the being upset by fresh suggestions that a huge great oceans of this planet, and unless we stop 'percentage of oil pollution Comes not from spills but from airborne anti-exhaust emissions This is the Jourth of a sertes of articles drifting to the'ocean surface. Herb again',-there science, conflicts crop up between the result of separate investigations. In the ocean-pollu ^lon lield, though, the stakes can be high. i donnybrook of major .proportions is growln; ; around question^ about the long-range effect o toil in the- oceans. The petroleum; industr; argues that oil degrades, or breaks down biol ogically, in the sea and therefore isn't harmfu for Vbry l0ng. O|her researchers, with evidenc< to the-contrary; say damage from a Single Oi t spill`ban be felt Tor decades. -: - ' Max Biumer,: a senipr -'scientist at. Wood, 'flolej ts cdnduciihg an exhaustive stud; of thi effects ofi a relatively small oil spill that tool i^lace in Cape' Cod's Buzzard's Bay in Septem itoer 1069.Long after the visible presence of pi has gone, small amounts are persisting in ; surprisingly wide area around the site of th< spill.r Among Mr.-Blumer's conclusions to dat< -is that*, "oil degrades slowly bnly in marine se *diments,5Vand it may be completely stable onci it is taken up by organisms." ; , . f Extrernefyi low concentrations at oil anc other pollutants may have "seriousiy damag 'ing biological .effects," Mr. Biumer warns adding that "our general ignorance" iof the de tails isn't an, excuse "for complacency if sue) effects aren't immediately obvious in gross ob servationS of polluted areas." ; With its own army of petroleum Chemists the oil. industry Is squaring off against the con elusions of the Woods Hole study. "Oil is mess; and \lgly and gets on people's feet," says Arm Gabriid,-director of environmental affairs foi the American Petroleum Institute, "but ifs no where near as Insidious as ocean dumping o' garbage or heavy metals, or so serious as tc justify interminable delays in needed' projects like the Alaska pipeline," i ' .. oh the sea. " '1 . ' ii - aren't any numbers to trusty,The best esti The institute is spending 1500,000 a year ,oi this madness, mankind itself may perish from the face of this 'earth. And that-would be the irony of all ironies--man having evolved from the .oceans, only to die because jje has killed mates, says Mr. White, "are still tenuous," The Ubiquitous Chemicals "7 | , 7' Breakthroughs are being maqie inj:pe dis covery of new forms of pollution far biii.to aea. The most celebrated reveiatiop has been that a oil-pollution research. It has financed a study still unpublished, that Mr. Gabrud says wti show that marine animals contaminated by oi "cleanse themselves" when placed , in pleat water. Mr. Blumer doesn't doubt the findings thejvery source of all life.!' a- " * chemical family called polychlorinated binhen- He only asks that they be "placed before flu And Jacques Cousteau, ocean explorer: "I yls, used in paints, ink^ and plaStica, .an be scientific public" for scrutiny. think if nothing was done today, maybe 30, 40 found in virtually every organism in the North Other scientists, however, complain of feel or 50 years would be the end of everything." and South Atlantic, at depths Up fo 11,000 feet. ing pressured by the industry's public-relation: Thespare momentous preitiitiprts'* Yet the But how these chemicals--'As well as plartic , front. "You can really catch hell trying to pub soothsayers are being shunted aside by govern particles and the propellants in aerosal garil-- I lish a paper on petroleum in'the sea," says an mental unconcern,' public unawabeness and sci have become so widespread is'a mystery. How other Woods Hole scientist, "They try to den) entific uncertainty!ever their JkCogTidsttcations. dangerous they are, in small jdoses over the everything you say, attack your analytics Sharing the Riches Jong run, is another enigma, (In large doses methods and completely discredit you." There is a "brick wall of indlfference'' to they can ,change behavior and reproductive* Nevertheless, the U.S. Congress has taker ! ward oceaq pollution at meetings leading to L attorns inythe same manner as DDT, upojhei steps to curb the most obvious oil spills. Legis ' the coming United Nations-sponsored Law of lipost universal contaminant. Monsanto,,, fhe lotion applying to all the nation's waterway: the Sea Conference, says John Hussey, an ex pnly U.S. producer, has stopped making the po-, went into effect in 1972 outlawing any apill lhal pert on the Senate Commerce Committee staff. lychlorinated bip^nyls.) * ^ ' fii-jh forms a visible sheen on the water. Civil penal "Everybody wants to ahare in the riches of the ocean." he says.. ``l.eav.ing protection of ocean resources off in a corner." The public seems unaware of ocean-pollu tion issues, despite the upwelling of interest after a few dramatic oil spills. Organtzedenvi- ronmentalists have taken until this summer to address the problem, in the form of a last-min ute Sierra Club attempt to influence the Law of the Sea talks. . A- ';v>* - "People had too many, things <to Jook at all 'At once When the- environmemil 'niovement hit," says Gene Coan. the Sierra Club official `directing the effort. "Ocean pollution is tough io get hold ot. ijt is aqojder of inignitude ipore Bostwick JCetchum, Associate Director " of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, adds that "a variety of synthetic: organic chem icals, including mother pesticides, detergents and pharmaceuticals are also undoubtedly reaching the marine environment with impacte that are virtually unknown." * . : 1 Scientific advances are sometimes softening earlier fears of o^ean hazards. Not long ago, it V^ij thought that,; the crown-of-thorns starfish jWa< destroying coral reefs because of some ihah-induced perversion. Now, evidence indi cates the starfish's unfortunate Appetite is a al one^jMercury contaminattMi yras be ties were provided and a fund of public mone; established for cleaning up' spills when those ,-responsible can't be found. The results appar 1 ently have been substantial. "I used to be.able [to go up Arthur Kill and see an.oll slick almos !any time," Richard Dewling, an Environmen jtal Protection Agency surveillance director says of a notorious New Jersey estuary. " , can't do that any more." , ; >, Farther legislation calls for new safety stan dards in tanker-construction and a harbor traf fie control system. Solid waste also has come under federal supervision with a 1972 law set ting up a permit system for ocean dumping. ^sbmplicated than Any pollution problem con- d to be a great modern threat" until the 'flned to national boundaries." ' ... Ionian Institution found comparably high of the* metal In fish that had . served for thousands of years. DSW 282306 STLCOPCB4063635 i# Page 2 j? But there ,are problems.EnvironmentaJiata fand ethers Accuse the Coast 'Guardrand the Iepa of '* ' __ _;__ on en-f1oroement'( ~The Ad ... rtistraiJon has impouhdeif fluids off another jlsill 'intended ito improveplannlQg of co'astal de- .velopnieiit.,.'Technology" for' cleaning up big spills remains backward. (At August hearings'4m its proposed $350 million refinery oft the Maine coast, I?iltston Go. admitted a spill in ia Ifour-knot ciirreiit couldn't be contained-! ` ; - Perhaps,the,jnost telling problem, though, is the one that distinguishes Oc^an pollution from the earthy pth^r environmental ills:-Pollution of the sea is an international phenomehon`that ; can never be cOntrolIe'd by the laws of a single nation, no matter how forceful jthey tre!lt [.y V ``Refuse dumped inside the Peruvian terri- [tori$ waters'. equals refuse dumped around the hhores -of Polynesia," Thor Heyerdahl, the ,an thropologist, told a Senate committee . after seeing globs of oil throughout his drift across the Atlantic In a reed boat. "Refuse dumped in side the Moroccan territorial waters equals re fuse dumped inside the Caribbean sea." International' controls plainly are the only means to deal with the problem because "terri torial" seas - are perpetually mixing- The threat, moreover, can only grow worse as oil shipments multiply and offshore development of superports and refineries becomes a reality., There Already are a few controls, among! them three international conventions^ dealing: with prevention of oil pollution from -tankers [ and liability for spill damage. CritiCs including the Sierra Club attack them as unenforceable. Last November, 91 nations endorsed interna tional controls over ocean dumping' by, ships and aircraft. The rules are ^stronger than dumping-legislation adopted in-the U.S., butj Jthey don't touch at all on questions of land- source pollution. > --- ! . . i , It remains for the Law of the Sea Confer- l ence, convening in New York in November and I then Jn '{Santiago next May, to draft genuine ; international obean-pollution controls. Yet the I prospects seem dim. "It Is as though ecology... j and Stockholm Sfthe UN Conference on the Hu-1 man Environment of last yegr) had never hap-; pened," says'jjrian Johnson, a British authority j on international law.-*`lt looks like business as usual, pending annihilation.'" . , I . . At this stagq. the conference seems unlikely to create an independent-pollution regulatory authority, provide any significant enforcement capability or impose any controls over ocean pollution that originates on land: In the fewest and potentially-most competitive area of deep- sea mining, , the conference Isn't expected to ask for "impact statements'' or to separate the agency that will encourage mining from the one that will regulate it. -. jTfl<|;SIerra Club is outraged.at the situation, i the mining issue, the club maintains, the nference. may,throw, away Retire chance to oceed cautiously before nj>; environmental image is'4pne.' Companies intent on mining s seabed, on.the other band,' Are itching to } started. Tlfgy Insist damage won't result om what tijey*plan to <do,.-Perhaps they're, ght, but the potential tor pollution'by deep-: weA mining--which has iiever been attempted jfrii'i s grand sca?e--is substantially a scientific piinknown. Nobody has proven that it -might be ^harmful, and until thgt is done. It seems unllkef.l^ that an international conference worried jjjsbdul'commercial considerations and mlner- wais shortages will endorse tough rules to con ^ ' ' -' o: ' : 4+.-"* fA- -- A-ti,.t ar- j - vv-.i . p? As with pollution by oil ^and plastics and, solid pastes, the issuqyof rhlhtng pollution is [again hamstrung by the-dearthof fundamental ,scientific ' kno'Wtedge.,,,"The rijjpt t)f all these problems is that we don't -even know what to predict will happen in a natiiral ocean environ-1 meht, much dess in a polluted onei" says Rich-| ard McGrath, a young m'Arhie biologist. ' | 1 Mr. McGrath is one hf the legion of scien tists doing the tedious work of gathering "base-j line" information about thtf character of the: sea. He is working on onc'small pfoje'ct for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra tion. His job is to find out. what is alive at the bottom of Raritan Bay, 'a tt-inngular funnel through which pollution-from-the factories and refineries that dot the shores of New Jersey's, Arthur Kill pours into the Atlantic. . ; On his 50th excursion, iij .nine months, the : waters of Raritan Bay are smooth and green- gray as the oceanographic agency's converted Army tugboat glides through the garbage at the leading edge of NeW York- harbor's ebb {tide. For seven hours under a steamy sun, Mr. [McGrath and several college-student helpers [grab samples of the black, oily inuck from the [bottom of the bay to the jaws of a small, spring-operated dredge. Each sample is sieved, and each living worm, Clam, and crustacean is saved in a bottle. s; . - Back at a laboratory on Jlew Jersey's Sandy Hook, every animal In every sample' will be [picked out, identified and counted. It can take one researcher two weeks-to finish work on a single bottle,. The purpose is to provide some touchstone for!- future measurements of the effects, of pollution in the bay and efforts to abate it. ' i,' . ' - ` '' * "After a while, every worm begins to look the same," says Barry Trotsky, one of the stu dent aides. . "It isn't the kind of work you dream of when you hear the WOrd 'oceanogra phy,' and it may take 5p years for the results to be appreciated or understood. But it's the work that has to be done." - DSW 282307 STLCOPCB4063636