The Nation - News from May 7, 1987

Government officials expressed hope that the national embarrassment--and amusement--over the case of the wandering garbage barge will focus needed attention on an impending crisis in municipal waste disposal. At a House subcommittee hearing on hazardous materials, federal, state and local officials said public awareness about the nation’s garbage problem had been raised as never before by the stomach-turning spectacle of the barge, which has spent more than 45 days at sea in search of a final resting place for its 3,186 tons of rotting trash.