What was dumped into the ocean before 1972?
In the past, communities around the world used the ocean for waste disposal, including the disposal of chemical and industrial wastes, radioactive wastes, trash, munitions, sewage sludge, and contaminated dredged material. Little attention was given to the negative impacts of waste disposal on the marine environment. Even less attention was focused on opportunities to recycle or reuse such materials. Wastes were frequently dumped in coastal and ocean waters based on the assumption that marine waters had an unlimited capacity to mix and disperse wastes.
Although no complete records exist of the volumes and types of materials disposed in ocean waters in the United States prior to 1972, several reports indicate a vast magnitude of historic ocean dumping:
- In 1968, the National Academy of Sciences estimated annual volumes of ocean dumping by vessel or pipes:
- 100 million tons of petroleum products;
- two to four million tons of acid chemical wastes from pulp mills;
- more than one million tons of heavy metals in industrial wastes; and
- more than 100,000 tons of organic chemical wastes.
- A 1970 Report to the President from the Council on Environmental Quality on ocean dumping described that in 1968 the following were dumped in the ocean in the United States:
- 38 million tons of dredged material (34 percent of which was polluted),
- 4.5 million tons of industrial wastes,
- 4.5 million tons of sewage sludge (significantly contaminated with heavy metals), and
- 0.5 million tons of construction and demolition debris.
- EPA records indicate that more than 55,000 containers of radioactive wastes were dumped at three ocean sites in the Pacific Ocean between 1946 and 1970. Almost 34,000 containers of radioactive wastes were dumped at three ocean sites off the East Coast of the United States from 1951 to 1962.
Following decades of uncontrolled dumping, some areas of the ocean became demonstrably contaminated with high concentrations of harmful pollutants including heavy metals, inorganic nutrients, and chlorinated petrochemicals. The uncontrolled ocean dumping caused severe depletion of oxygen levels in some ocean waters. In the New York Bight (ocean waters off the mouth of the Hudson River), where New York City dumped sewage sludge and other materials, oxygen concentrations in waters near the seafloor declined significantly between 1949 and 1969.
Ocean dumping is regulated by the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act (MPRSA). Learn about ocean dumping regulation including what materials can and cannot be dumped, the Ocean Dumping Management Program, and MPRSA history and accomplishments.
www.epa.gov
