ABSTRACT
The National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere (NACOA) was created by Congress in 1971. By law, NACOA is required to report to the President and Congress its recommendations and findings on national ocean and atmosphere issues. Issues studied by NACOA are generated in two ways: direct request from the Administration or Congress, and expressed interest of the members. NACOA's initial concern was that the use of the oceans for waste disposal might increase with few safeguards to insure minimum adverse impact. By May, 1979, a few members of Congress, as well as NACOA, became concerned that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) medium-by-medium approach to waste disposal was beginning to create major problems for those local government agencies that had to deal with actual disposal. Federal Judge Sofaer cited the NACOA report in ruling that EPA ocean dumping regulations cannot presume that all sludge dumping "unreasonably degrades the environment."
