deep water has on marine life and ultimately humans, visiting scientist Dr.

John Farrington said yesterday.

Dr. Farrington, Dean of Graduate Studies at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, delivered a talk on ocean pollution at the Bermuda Biological Station for Research last night.

Woods Hole, which has a close working relationship with the Biological Station, last year asked the US Government to amend its anti-dumping law in a way that would allow ocean dumping of sewage -- the byproduct of human waste from sewer systems after it has been treated.

The Institution is hoping to implement a plan that would see two potential deep water dump sites used to pile millions of tones of US waste sludge between Bermuda and the US East Coast.

So far there is no word on that plan. But Dr. Farrington, using diagrams and photographs depicting Woods Hole scientists' findings in several smaller research projects carried out in deep-sea waste dumping experiments over the past six years, said the adage "the solution to pollution is dilution'' is still a valid one.

And while it is still unclear whether this will become the safest way to dispose of waste, he said studies so far have shown that not all of the waste is absorbed by the mixing of the ocean.