The Legislature finds that 2.8 million wet tons (1 million dry pounds) of sewage sludge generated by six New Jersey municipal treatment works each day are ocean disposed at the federally designated 106-mile dump site; that these sludges are ocean rather than land disposed in recognition of the threat posed by the presence of contaminants; that the United States Environmental Protection Agency has officially affirmed a termination of ocean dumping as its adopted policy, a goal undermined by continuing at-sea disposal of sewage sludge; and that experts in deepwater ocean ecosystems have attested to the deleterious effects of waste disposal on the ocean environment.

P.L. 1988, c. 57, s. 2.