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By Thomas Henry The oceans have been the ultimate disposal place for all waste that we produce and our past pollution habits are starting to catch up with us as our nations waters become too contaminated to enjoy. The ocean was a perfect temporary solution to a waste disposal problem that burdened many companies and manufacturers for the past few decades. Oceans are able to disperse, dissolve, and degrade large amounts of sewage, waste products, sludge, and all other types of industrial waste which lead many people to believe that this was a perfect dumping ground for all waste. Tyler Miller who is an active environmentalist and the author of Sustaining the Earth: An Integrated Approach says that this is not the answer. "Not even for Jacques Cousteau who said the very survival of the human species depends upon the maintenance of an ocean clean and alive, spreading all around the world. The ocean is our planet's life belt," said Miller. In the US alone we are subjected to 2,600 beach closings occurring in more than 20 coastal states according to Miller's studies. These closings are due to bacterial waste and sewage buildup that derives from overloaded sewage treatment systems. It is now prohibited to dump sludge and other chemicals in the United States waters. New York City produces enough sludge to fill 8 1/2 World Trade Center buildings each year. Dumping of industrial waste off US coasts has stopped, although it still occurs in a number of other middle-developed countries and lower developed countries. Miller said the pollution in our seas has not stopped completely. Barges and ships still legally dump large quantities of dredge spoils (materials, often laden with toxic metals, scraped from the bottoms of harbors and rivers to maintain shipping channels) at 110 sites off the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts. Sewage sludge is defined in Miller's book as a gooey mixture of toxic chemicals, infectious agents, and settled solids removed from wastewater at sewage treatment plants. Sludge used to be dumped, untreated, into the ocean and even though it is illegal now to dump sludge and medical waste, the shores of New Jersey are still threatened. Bergen County in New Jersey is the host of a web page that tries to inform and curb polluting in the ocean. New Jersey is a popular place for vacation in which the Ocean plays a big par |
