Water Pollution

Coordinated Strategy Needed to Address Radioactive and Toxic Wastes in the Massachusetts Bay Gao ID: T-RCED-92-17 November 4, 1991

While the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has tried to respond to issues arising from the dumping of toxic and radioactive wastes in Massachusetts Bay, disagreements over some technical issues remain. Perhaps more important, GAO testified, the emotion and confusion surrounding the issue has cast a cloud of suspicion over these efforts that, if not addressed, could continue to undermine future efforts to resolve this problem. EPA can help ensure the credibility of its future work if it forms a research team to help design its planned survey. The team should include representatives from agencies with experience in navigational search techniques and issuing dumping permits. Furthermore, to minimize continuing concerns of environmental organizations, EPA should invite representatives from these groups to serve on the design team. In this way, EPA could convey its awareness of the range of concerns and will have a chance to fully explain the rationale behind its final survey design.



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