EDITORIAL
Editor: Russell F. Christman Associate Editor: Charles R . O’Melia WASHINGTON EDITORIAL STAFF Managing Editor: Stanton S. Miller Associate Editor: Julian Josephson Assistant Editor: Lois R. Ember MANUSCRIPT REVIEWING Manager: Katherine I. Biggs Assistant Editor: David Hanson MANUSCRIPT EDITING Associate Production Manager: Charlotte C. Sayre Assistant Editor: Gloria L. Dinote GRAPHICS AND PRODUCTION Production Manager: Leroy L. Corcoran Art Director: Norman Favin Artist: Diane J. Reich Advisory Board: P. L. Brezonik, Joseph J. Bufalini. Arthur A. Levin, James J. Morgan, Sidney R. Orem, Frank P. Sebastian, John H. Seinfeld, C. Joseph Touhill, Charles S. Tuesday Published by the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY 1155 16th Street N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 872-4600 Executive Director: Robert W. Cairns BOOKS AND JOURNALS DIVISION D. H. Michael Bowen, Director Charles R . Bertsch, Head Editorial Department Bacil Guiley, Head, Graphics and Production Department Seldon W. Terrant. Head, Research and Development Department Marion Gurfein, Head, Circulation Development
Dregs on dredging Public Law 92-500 specifically exempts the discharge of dredge or fill material from the EPA-administered NPDES Permit System and instead authorizes the Army Corps of Engineers to issue permits for the discharge of dredge material at specified disposal sites where navigable waters are involved. Recently, the U S . District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the responsibility of the Army Corps of Engineers in this matter extends to all waters of the U.S., and ordered the Corps and EPA to work together in establishing appropriate regulatory procedures and discharge guidelines. In this issue David Smith reviews the development process that has transpired since the Court ruling and offers f S & T readers an early glimpse of the regulations and guidelines that may formally be issued late this spring. In addition Professor G. Fred Lee offers an analysis of the directions in which greatly expanded research emphasis would be helpful to meet legal requirements. Here again our legal mandates have outreached our ability to deliver. Difficulties in interpreting the phrase “navigable waters” will seem insignificant compared to defining the limits of “all waters of the U.S.” Even without this expanded interpretation the environmental impact of dredging has been difficult to assess, and concern over chemical contaminants in dredge materials has added to the costs of some projects and delayed others. Our knowledge of the chemical and physical impacts of dredge material on water columns is inadequate and our ability to weigh social benefits and costs attendant with unnatural uses of coastal wetlands is primitive. We do not have an adequate technical basis for making the decisions now required by law. The issue here, as in other aspects of P.L. 92-500, is the demand for more research, information and understanding as prerequisites for intelligent regulatory decisions.
ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT Centcom. Ltd. For offices and advertisers, see page 398 Please send research manuscripts to Manuscript Reviewing, feature manuscripts to Managing Editor. For author’s guide and editorial policy, see June 1975 issue, page 547, or write Katherine I. Biggs. Manuscript Reviewing Office €Sa T
Volume 10, Number 4, April 1976
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