Coastal Marine Environment Sustainability - Sustainable Practices in Geoenvironmental Engineering - page 271

8.3 London Convention and Protocol
The London Convention and Protocol consists of the original London Convention 1972.
This expanded the Oslo Convention for North-East Atlantic to cover marine waters world-
wide, except for the inland waters of the various 80 states that were signatories to the con-
vention. The Oslo Convention came into force in 1974 and the expanded Oslo Convention
(to worldwide marine waters), which became the London Convention that came into force
in 1975. With this Convention, elimination of future marine contamination from deliberate
discharge of industrial and other wastes is to be achieved through regulation of dumping
of wastes at sea. The wastes of concern included the original oily wastes from the 1954
and 1958 conventions, dredging spoils and wastes, and industrial wastes (i.e., land-based
generated wastes).
Adoption of the 1996 Protocol to the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by
Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, 1972, 2006 (IMO, 2006) essentially strengthened the
London Convention with the Precautionary Approach and the Polluter Pays Principle. With
the precautionary approach, the burden of responsibility for determining whether a waste
designated for ocean dumping is potentially hazardous is now borne by the originator of
the waste. The annex in the 1996 Protocol, “Assessment of wastes or other matter that may
be considered for dumping” states that “acceptance of dumping under certain circum-
stances shall not remove the obligations under this Annex to make further attempts to
reduce the necessity for dumping.” The wastes or other matter that may be considered for
dumping in accordance with the objectives of the protocol and the precautionary approach
include
1. Dredged material
2. Sewage sludge
3. Fish waste, or material resulting from industrial ish processing operations
4. Vessels and platforms or other man-made structures at sea
5. Inert, inorganic geological material
6. Organic material of natural origin
7. Bulky items primarily comprising iron, steel, concrete, and similarly nonharmful
materials for which the concern is physical impact, and limited to those circum-
stances where such wastes are generated at locations, such as small islands with
isolated communities, having no practicable access to disposal options other than
dumping
For dredged material and sewage sludge, the goal of waste management should be to
identify and control the sources of contamination. This should be achieved through imple-
mentation of waste prevention strategies and requires collaboration between the relevant
local and national agencies involved with the control of point and non-point sources of
pollution. Until this objective is met, the problems of contaminated dredged material may
be addressed using disposal management techniques at sea or on land.
Apparently, dredged material from the sea bottom has always occupied a special posi-
tion under the convention—to a large extent because dredging is an important require-
ment and a necessity for keeping navigation routes open, and also for ports and harbors.
The volume of dredged materials is considerable. However, there is incontrovertible