International Activity on Water Pollution at EPA Covering over 70 percent of the earth's surface, the oceans are essential to life on this planet. They contain all but a tiny fraction of the world's water, occupying the most important part of the water cycle and con- trolling weather and climate for all land-based life. Most of civilization's goods and many of its people depend on ocean transport. Healthy oceans replenish oxygen, sup- ply protein, and provide recreation opportunities. Unfortunately, the oceans have a limited capacity to absorb the waste products of industrial civilization, and that capacity is being severely taxed. Up to three million tons of oil enter the sea each year from routine tanker operations, and another quarter of a million tons are spilled in tanker accidents. The March, 1978 grounding of the Amoco Cadiz off Brittany, France was a grim reminder of the vulnerability of resource-rich coastal areas to an environmental catastrophe. Off the coast of California, canisters leak radioactive waste. A cargo of toxic tetraethyl lead was recently removed with great difficulty from a sunken freighter near Otranto, Italy. The international community has started to take steps to prevent problems such as these, as well as equally serious problems of marine pollution originating from land. EPA representatives serve on U.S. delegations to in- ternational conferences on controlling marine pollution. EPA participated in the U. N. Conference on the Law of the Sea, and is playing a major role in implementing the 1972 Convention on the Prevention of Pollution by the Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter. The Agency is helping secure ratification of the 1973 Convention of the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, which was negoti- ated within the U.N.'s International Maritime Consulta- tive Organization. EPA is involved in carrying out the 1959 Antarctic Treaty. EPA has conducted studies on major oil spills around the globe, seeking methods to prevent such accidents, to gather data on their effects, and to repair damage. EPA investigators have performed studies of the Amoco Cadiz accident, as well as the spill of 50,000 tons of oil from the supertanker Metula in the Strait of Magellan in 1974, and a spill of 4,500 tons of oil from a tanker in Malacca Strait near Singapore in 1977. The United States and Canada are cooperating to control pollution in shared waters, particularly the Great Lakes. EPA works on implementing the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement signed by the two countries in 1972, and renewed in 1978. Government and industry of both countries are spending billions of dollars to halt pollution of the lakes and to restore their waters. The United States and Mexico have a number of mechanisms for dealing with water pollution problems along their border, including a Memorandum of Under- standing signed by EPA Administrator Douglas M. Costle and his Mexican counterpart in 1978. Progress is being made on border sanitation and water-quality problems along the international boundary. The United States shares information and technology with other nations on water pollution problems. EPA conducts joint research, and information and tech- nology exchanges with Japan, the USSR, Yugoslavia, Egypt, and Poland. It also contributes data to projects within multilateral international organizations dealing with water pollution, such as the Earthwatch program of the United Nations Environment Program. v>EPA United States Environmental Protection Agency ------- |