Ocean Dumping

Introduction

The Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972 (MPRSA, P.L. 92-532) aims at regulating intentional ocean disposal of materials, and authorizing related research. The first part of the Act forms the Ocean Dumping Act which contains permit and Enforcement provisions for ocean dumping. It provides the legal and regulatory framework so as to reduce dumping in the United States territorial waters.

Environmental Effectiveness

The Ocean Dumping Act prohibits all forms of ocean dumping, save that which is allowed by permits. The Act provides for control of both the transportation of material to be dumped and the dumping itself. Radiological, chemical and biological warfare agents and high-level radioactive wastes are banned

It further brought about the adoption of other methods of disposing wastes. However this seems to be only a facelift of a major problem. This act failed to address the pollution through industrial chemicals which may not be dumped directly but disposed into the ground and finally infiltrate or are washed away to the oceans hence endangering aquatic life.

Cost

The declaratory policy of the Ocean Dumping Act is that: ‘it is an act to regulate the dumping of all types of materials into ocean waters and to prevent or strictly limit the dumping into ocean waters of any material which would adversely affect human health, welfare, or amenities, or the marine environment, ecological systems, or economic potentialities’.

This therefore shows the diversity of the areas this act traverses. So as to ensure that EPA ensures the effective implementation of the policies there is the need of funding whose sustainability is in question.

Implementation

this process by EPA does not grant the public the opportunity to be heard on whether the dumping will adverselty affect them but rather the public is reduced to mere spectators.

Further, the Ocean Dumping Management Act has been challenged to clearly articulate the scope and benefits of the act, given shifts in the types of materials proposed for ocean disposal, multiple agencies involved in ocean dumping permitting, and reduced public attention to environmental and human health risks of ocean disposal.

Conclusion

Unless the act is reviewed so as to ensure the public participation and aim at balancing between the economic and environmental tradeoffs. The act will be a mere rhetoric which does not solve the real problem but rather burden the people it seeks to protect through unnecessary