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PHYTOREMEDIATING DREDGED SEDIMENTS: A BENEFICIAL REUSE PROTOCOL
Citation:
Rock*, S A., J. McPherson, R. A. Price, AND R. J. Graziano. PHYTOREMEDIATING DREDGED SEDIMENTS: A BENEFICIAL REUSE PROTOCOL. Presented at 17th Inernational Contaminated Soils, Sediments, and Water Conference, Amherst, MA, 10/22-25/2001.
Description:
The Jones Island Confined Disposal Facility (CDF) located in Milwaukee Harbor Wisconsin, receives dredged materials from normal maintenance of Milwaukee's waterways. Like many CDFs they face the dilemma of steady inputs and no feasible alternative for expansion. The Army Corps of Engineers (AEC) in partnership with the Milwaukee Harbor Authority, is exploring a large range of beneficial reuse options for the dredged material, from building and road fill, to landscape materal. Conclusions to date should be considered as preliminary. Aged dredged material at Jones Island is heterogeneous in compositon because it comes from waterway sources over a wide area over many years. Some dredged materials contain EPa listed wastes from industrial discharge, spills, and urban run-off in widely varying concentrations. Natural attenuation processes occur at differing rates due to random placement in the CDF and various oxygen, moisture levels and weathering impacts. To determine appropriate end use of the stored material a detailed characterization across the CDF with samples taken at three depths and analyzed for PAHs, PCBs, and metals. Diesel range organics (DRO) analysis was also run to determine if the less expensive DRO test could be substituted for PAH and/or PCB testing. Treatability studies conducted at the AEC Waterways Experiment Station using crops and grasses determined that plants would survive in the material and degrade the contaminants. Initial results indicate that corn and clover had the highest degradation effect over the short test period. Field plots were established on the CDF by excavating, mixing, and depositing soil in test cells. The test plots closely follow the Remediation Technology Development Forum protocol for plot size, sampling, and statistical design.