Document pBZaBJ1R4Kkx3mVqm9r56ZV9B

\ V The Sea , THE WALL STREET JOURNAL October 2, 1973 I Backtrackkif Ilk. Uil. hnmr. only d.mj onstrates how llmtted knowledge ts about pollu tion of the sea. and. as In many an unpolished Pollution of Oceans Is Enormous Threat, But Few People Care Scientific Uncertainty Adds To the Problem; `Business as Usual, Pending Annihilation' Behind the Indifference and unawareneaa of most people amt many governments lies the most unfathomable difficulty: a great gap in scientific knowledge about pollution of the seas. A gush of research following oil spills of the 1940s barely haa begun to lay the ground work for decades of study needed before people ean know Just what pollutants are tn the sea. how much there la of them, where they go once there and what effect they eventually will have on life In the oceans and on land. Panoply of Pollutant* "Despite broad general consensus about the contaminants which represent the greatest threat of global pollution." says Robert M. White, head of the National Oceanic and At science, conflicts crop up between the results of separste Investigations. In the ocean-pollu tion field, though, the stakes can be high. A donnybrook of major proportions ia growing around questions about the long-range effect of oil In the oceans. The petroleum Industry argues that oil degrades, or breaks down biol ogically. in the eea and therefore Isn't harmful for very long. Other researchers, with evidence to the contrary, say damage from a single oil spill can be felt for decades. Max Blumer. a senior scientist at Woods Hole, is conducting sn exhaustive study of the effects of a relatively small oil spill that took place In Cape Cod's Buaaard'a Bay in Septem ber 1949. Long after the visible presence of otl How Dangerous Is Oil Slick? mospheric Adminietration, "knowledge of their has gone, small amounts are persisting In a full extent, their fate and their impact on the surprisingly wide area around the site of the ocean ecosystem ia scanty at beat." pill. Among Mr. Blumer * conclusions to date What la known la that in the most Intense In By Barry Newman thtff ftrportr-r / THK WdU. STKBRt JOURNAL II li IN last pollution. stances of contamination around coastal areas, pollution kills. The evidence is clear enough Loot to step Into public consciousness; loot from the quick death of marine life after larger to bo treated by the rule ot law; last to be ana oil spills, the fact that 30',; of thia country's lysed by acience. | clam and oyster beds are fouled by human | wastes, and the near absence of life in harbors It Is the loot pollution bocauoo It Ib into the striken by a panoply of pollutants. stuns--the ultimate sewer-that all the The body of knowledge is growing steadily, waatee of man that aren't plied or buried on fed by platoons of scientists in dosens of gov land muet find their way. And it la the laat pol lution bocauac If the ceane-eource of moat ernment. university and Industry laboratories. But every new revelation seems to open a Pan oayffn-are poiaoned, life on earth ae we know dora's box of questions and contradictions. tt eonnot go on. Even basic statistics on the amount of oil The enormity of the proapect haa led aome entering the sea via spills have varied wildly. Is that "oil degrades slowly only in marine eedlments, and It may be completely stable once It la taken up by organisms." Extremely low concentrations of oil and other pollutants may have "seriously damag ing biological effects." Mr. Blumer warns, adding that "our general ignorance" of the de tails isn't an excuse "for complacency if such effects aren't Immediately obvioua In grove ob servations of polluted areas." With Us own army of petroleum chemists, the oil industry ts squaring off against the con clusions of the Woods Hole study. "Otl is mossy and ugly and geta on people's feet." *aye Arne Gabrud, director of environmental affairs for to atalomanta like theae: Now thoee unreliable estimates are themselves the American Petroleum Institute, "but it's no Ben. Ernest P. Holllnge: "We are killing the groat oeoana ot thla planet, and unlaaa we atop rtii if the fourth of a series of articles Ion the aeo. ___ J thia madneta. mankind Itaelf may perish from tho face of thla earth. And that would be the Irony of all Ironiaa-man having evolved from the oeeana. only to die becauae he haa killed the very aource of all life." And Jacquea Cousteau. ocean explorer: "I think If nothing wae done today, maybe SO, 40 or 00 yeara would be the end of everything." Theae are momentoua prediction!. Yet the ooothaayera are being shunted aalde by govern mental unconcern, public unawareneaa and acl- entific uncertainty over their prognoatlcationa. haring the Kli'hea There la a "brick wall of Indifference" to ward ocean pollution at meetings leading to the coming United Nationa-sponaored Law of the Sea Conference, aaya John Huaeey. an ex pert on the Senate Commerce Committee staff. "Everybody wanla to share tn the richee of the ocean." he aaya, "leaving protection of ocean reaourcea off In a corner." The public eeema unaware of orean-pollu- lion laeuea. deepitc the upwclltng of interest after a lew dramatic oil apltl*. Organised envi ronmentalists have taken until Ihia summer to addreee the problem, in the form of a laet-min- ute Sierra Club attempt to influenee the Law of the Sea talks. "People had too many thing* to took at ail at once when ihc environmental movement hit." aaya Ocno Coan. the Sierra Club official directing the effort. "Ocean pollution in tough to get hold of. It la an order of magnitude more being upset by fresh suggestions that a huge where near as Insidious as ocean dumping of percentage ot olt pollution comes not from garbage or heavy mctala. or eo serious as to spills but from airborne anU-exhaust emissions justify Interminable delay* tn needed projects drifting to the ocean surface. Here again, there , like the Alaska pipeline." aren't any numbers to trust. The best esti The institute Is spending IM0.000 * year on mates. says Mr. While, "are still tenuous." oil-pollution research. It has financed a study, The tlbiqnttaus Chemicals still unpublished, that Mr Cabrud say* will Breakthroughs are being made In the dis show that marine animals contaminated by oil covery of new forms of pollution far out to tea. "cleanse themselves" when placed in clean The most celebrated revelatior^ha* been that a water. Mr Blumer doesn't doubt the findings. chemical family called polychlprlnstcd_biphen- He only asks that they be "placed before the yin, used in paints. Inks' and plastics, can be scientific public" for scrutiny. found In virtually every organism in the North Other scientists, however, complm of feel and South Atlantic, at depths up to u.ooo feet. ing pressured by the Industry's public-relations But how these chemicals-as well as plastic front. "You can really catch hell trying to pub particles and the propellants In aerosal cans -- lish a paper on petroleum in the aea." say* an have become so widespread la's mystery. How other Woods Hole aclentiat "They try to deny dangerous they are. in small doses over the everything you say. nltuek your eoalytirAl long > ..n, is another enigma. (In large doses methods and completely discredit you." i^they s' .'isnge behavior and reproductive^ Nevertheless, the U S. Congress ha* taken spat . ... the same manner as DDT. another^ steps tu curb the most obvious oil spills. Legis almo*'. u< versa) '-ontamlnant. Monsanto, the lation Applying to all the nation's ntcr\vuvs ronly C A. producer. Haa stopped making the po-j went Into effect in 1972 outlawing any spill tout lychlorlnii ied b. , - yls.i . forms a visible sheen on the water. Civil (tensi Boslwick Kvtchum. Associate Director of ties were provided and a fund of publiv rrnnry the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, established for cleaning up spills when loose adda that "a variety of synthetic organic chem icals. including other pesticides, detergents and pharmaccutlcali are also undoubtedly reaching the mnrine environment with Impacts responsible can't be found. The results appar ently have br- n substantial. "! used to hr able to go up Arthur Kilt and see an oil alu-A almost any lime." Richard Ccwling. an Knvironmm- that are virtually unknown." Scientific advances are sometimes softening earlier fears of ocean hasards. Not long ago. it was thought that the crown-of-thorns starfish was destroying coral reefs because of some man-induced perversion. Now. evidence indi cates the starfish's unfortunate appetite is a natural one. Mercury contamination was be lai Prot-iMum Atcnry ..urvnilnne*: director, soys of a notorious Now Jersey estuary "I can't do that any more." Further legislation chIIs for new nafcty stan dards in tanker vonstri'C^on and h harbor traf fic control system. Solid waste also has come under federal supervision with a 1973 law set ting up a permit system for ocean dumping. complicated than any pollution problem con lieved to be a great modern threat until the fined to national boundaries." I Smithsonian Institution found comparably high levels of the metal in fish that had been pre served for Ihouaitndsof years HONS 064722 Page 2 But there art problems. Environmentalists end others accuse the Coast Guard and the ' SPA ol foot-dragging on enforcement. The ad* ministration has impounded funds on another bill Intended to improve planning of coastal de velopment. Technology lor cleaning up big spills remains backward. (At August hearings on its proposed $350 million refinery off Ihe Maine coast. Pittston Co. admitted a spill In a four-knot current couldn't be contelned.) Perhaps the most telling problem, though, is the one the! distinguishes ocean pollution from the earth's other environmental Hie: Pollution of the sea is en international phenomenon th.il can nsver be controlled by the laws of a single nation, no matter how forceful they nre. "Refute dumped Inside the Peruvian terri torial waters equals refuse dumped around the shores of Polynesia." Thor Heyerdahl, the an thropologist. told a Senate committee after seeing globs of oil throughout hit drift across the Atlantic In s reed boat. "Refuse dumped in* aide the Moroccan lerritorlai waters equals re fuse dumped Inside the Caribbean sea." International controls plainly ere the only means to dsaJ with the problem because "terri torial'' eeaa are perpetually mixing. The threat, moreover, can only grow worse aa oil ahlpments multiply and offshore development of superports and refineries become* 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! Ihe Sierra Club attack them ea 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.. but, they don't touch at all on questions of land-' source pollution. j . It remains for the Law of the Sea Confer-1 nee, convening in New York in November and I then In Santiago next May. (o drift genuine! international ocean-pollution controls. Yet the; prospects seem dim. "It is as though ecology ..., and Stockholm (the UN Conference on the Hu-1 man Environment of last year! hod never hap pened." says nsn Juhnsoii. s British authority on International law. "It looks like business as usual, pending annihilation.'' At this stage, the conference teems unlikely to create sn Independent pollution regulatory authority, provide any significant snforcement capability or impose any controls over ocean i jpollution that originates on land. In the newest and potentially most competitive area of deep- sea mining, the conference isn't expected to ask for "Imparl statement*'* or to separate tha agency that will encourage mining from the one that will regulate it. Ihe Sierra Club la outraged at the situation. - - the mining Issue, the club maintelne. the - .(.-rence may throw awsy a rare chance lo ! - _-eed cautiously before any environmental ` mage La done. Companies intent on mining ' seabed, on the other hand, are itching to t started. They insist damage won't result jin what they plan to do. Perhaps they're trht. but Ihe potential for pollution by deep-a mining--which hea never been attempted n a grand scale--is substantially a scientific .inknown. Nobody has proven that it might be harmful, and until that la done, it seems unlike ly that an LnternaUonal conference worried about commercial considerations and miner!is shortages will endorse tough rules to con . irol It. ' As with pollution by oil and plastics and solid wastes, the tasue of mining pollution is. again hamstrung by the dearth of fundamental! scientific knowledge. "The root of all these! problems la that we don't even know what to! predict will happen in a natural ocean environ ment. much leas In a polluted one," says Rich ard McGrath, a young marine biologist. ! Mr. McGrath is one of the legion of scien tists doing the tedious work of gathering "base-; line" information about the character of the sea. He ts working on one small project (or the! National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra tion. His Job la to find out what is alive at the bottom of Raritan Bay, a triangular 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 In nine months, ihe waters of Raritan Bay are smooth and green- gray at 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 collcge-etudent helper* grab samples of the black, oily muck from the bottom of the bay In the Jaws of a small, spring-operated dredge. Each sample is sieved, and each living worm, clam and -crustacean is saved in a bottle. Back at a laboratory on New Jersey's Sandy Hook, every animal in every sample wilt 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 measurement of the effects of pollution in the bey and efforts to abate it. "After s while, every worm begins to look the same," says Barry Trotsky, one of the stu dent aides. *`Jt isn't the kind of work you dream of when you hear the word oceanogra phy,' and it may fake 30 years for the results to be appreciated or understood. But it's the work that has to be done.'* < HONS 064723