Research Proposal

According to the United States’ Environmental Protection Agency in 2012 there was 32 million tons of plastic waste created however only nine percent of that was able to be recycled (EPA, 2014). While this statistic doesn’t include plastics found in automobiles, it still means around 29 million tons of plastic waste that are unaccounted for. The question I asked myself upon learning this is “Is there anything being done to prevent all this plastic pollution created by the United States?” I found the answer to this question depended on where the plastic was being polluted in the United States. There is specific legislation enacted in the United States to prohibit the dumping of all types of waste, including plastic. This piece of legislation was proposed for a very important reason, dumping waste into our ocean has negative effects on both marine life as well as human life. However, after this legislation was passed what have the effects been on our oceans? Also what effects has it caused our country? The topic I have chosen to research is the implementation of the Ocean Dumping Act and what affects it has caused for our oceans as well as our country.

            This topic is very important to study because it aims to create a solution to a huge problem that was occurring. Prior to the implementation Ocean Dumping Act in 1972 the US National Academy of Science estimated that “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 wastes” were released into marine environment in 1968. While this legislation was intended to have a positive effect, my rationale behind researching this topic is to see if it truly has had a beneficial impact. My curiosity was originally sparked in researching the effectiveness the Ocean Dumping Act because our ocean clearly still has a pollution issue. However the question still remains if there has been an improvement since the implementation of this policy? Also if it has improved does the current pollution around our coasts exist because the materials that were previously dumped non-biodegradable? An article written in the New York Times also questions the Ocean Dumping Act by saying its “Good Politics, But Not Necessarily Good Policy”. The article argues that this law is moving pollution from the oceans to our land. My research is going to see if this argument is still relevant today as the article was written 21 years ago.

            The Ocean Dumping Act has two main goals: “to regulate intentional ocean disposal of materials, and to authorize any related research”. The Environmental Protection Agency is in charge of regulating dumping of all materials disposed of in the ocean. The legislation requires that materials cannot be disposed of at least three miles away from the shoreline. However EPA is allowed to issue permits to allow dumping in the ocean as long as it will not danger human life or the marine environment. This is also an issue I will look into during my research. For organizations that chose to ignore this law, there is a hefty price. The EPA can press criminal charges that include a $250,000 fine and a potential five years in prison.

            The key player of this issue will definitely be the EPA, as they are charged with the implementation of this law. However there are many other actors who deal with different aspects of this legislation (those organizations are the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). Other players I will be observant of in my research are corporations who create a large amount of waste, looking into where their waste now goes after this law was enacted.

            One of my academic sources I have found is a review of this legislation conducted by the Santa Clara Law Review. This source is academic as it is a law review clearly conducting an analysis of the implementation of this policy. Two additional sources I have found for my research is the Natural Resources Defense Council and the EPA themselves. The EPA is an academic source as they are in charge of implementation and is the organization that has the authority to press criminal charges in matters of dumping pollution into the oceans. The Natural Resources Defense Council is also an academic source because they are an organization comprised of environmental and legal experts.