In addition to signing the immigration bill containing NEPA and ESA waivers
along both Mexico and Canada borders....
This just came in from fellow list-member and recycling-consultant Gretchen
Brewer regarding the results of requests to exempt Navy ships from dumping
in sensitive ocean areas. 8-(
>From: EarthGB@aol.com
>Date: Tue, 1 Oct 1996 04:42:37 -0400
>To: cdchase
>Subject: Navy Dumping
>
>Hi,
>I have bad news to report. Finally, yesterday I reached Kate Hinch at Center
>for Marine Conservation. She told me that the Navy managed the end-run in
>the defense budget reauthorization, persuading Congress in conference
>committee that Navy ships should be exempted from MARPOL prohibitions against
>dumping in special areas (the most sensitive oceans).
>This means ships will be allowed to dump pulped paper and food wastes, and
>shredded glass and metals (bagged in burlap) in these areas. Kate and others
>succeeded only in preventing the exemption from being extended to plastics
>also.
>They failed in another area as well: getting language in the bill requiring
>the Navy to plan for better waste management methods on future ships yet to
>be built. This is another defeat, as the Navy itself had pledged in earlier
>planning documents that they would try to do better with new ships than is
>possible with existing ships (where I've seen myself that there are real
>problems finding space to store garbage till ships return to port).
>Kate thinks that Pres. Clinton has already signed the budget authorization,
>but she wasn't sure and was going to have her legal person get in touch with
>me.
>If there's more to report, I'll let you know. Also, I'll be following this
>business in hopes an opportunity may arise to turn it around next year, or
>whenever. It's a real bummer.