---
kind: "section"
citation: "33 U.S.C. § 2501"
title: "33"
title_heading: "Navigation and Navigable Waters"
number: "2501"
heading: "Findings"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/33/2501"
units:
  - "Chapter 38 — Dumping of Medical Waste by Public Vessels"
---

# §2501. Findings


The Congress finds the following:

- (1) The washing ashore of [potentially infectious medical wastes](/usc/33/2502.md?p=1) from [public vessels](/usc/33/2502.md?p=2) of the United States may pose serious and widespread risks to public health and to the welfare of coastal communities.
- (2) Current Federal law provides inadequate protections against the disposal of such wastes from such vessels into ocean waters.
- (3) Operators of such vessels must take immediate action to stop disposing of such wastes into ocean waters.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 100–688, title III, § 3102, Nov. 18, 1988, 102 Stat. 4152.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Short Title

Pub. L. 100–688, title III, § 3101, Nov. 18, 1988, 102 Stat. 4152, provided that: “This subtitle [subtitle A (§§ 3101–3105) of title III of Pub. L. 100–688, enacting this chapter] may be cited as the ‘United States Public Vessel Medical Waste Anti-Dumping Act of 1988’.”