Science Inventory

AOC Revitalization and the Beneficial Reuse of Dredged Materials: Collective Decisions and the Dredged Materials Decision Tool

Citation:

Paczuski, S., K. Williams, AND J. Hoffman. AOC Revitalization and the Beneficial Reuse of Dredged Materials: Collective Decisions and the Dredged Materials Decision Tool. AOC Conference, Muskegon, MI, May 24 - 26, 2022. https://doi.org/10.23645/epacomptox.19852312

Impact/Purpose:

This presentation will be given at the 2022 Areas of Concern Conference to introduce and update conference attendees on the EPA Dredged Material Decision Tool’s ongoing research and development. The impact of this research and sharing this tool with the AOC Conference is the continued revision and application of a decision tool created by Region 5 through collaborative translational research methodologies to achieve their goals of facilitating collective decisions that demonstrate how dredged material can be beneficially used to restore habitats, provide economic benefits, and increase ecosystem services. AOC Conference attendees viewing this presentation may be interested in applying or recommending the DMDT for use in their own contexts.

Description:

Shipping of goods and commodities is one of the dominant uses of the Great Lakes. Navigation channels in rivers and harbors must be routinely dredged to mandated depths to facilitate this shipping. In practice, there has been a long-term use of open lake disposal or placement in confined disposal facilities. This option is no longer available in some places, requiring new solutions for dredge material placement such as beneficially using the dredge material in habitat restoration or brownfields remediation. To that end, USEPA Region 5 developed a decision-support tool to help communities characterize and quantify the economic and social dimensions of beneficially using dredge material so these dimensions can be more easily weighed alongside environmental considerations. Region 5 has been working with USEPA Office of Research Development scientists to help refine the tool and enhance usability through conducting a series of workshops with different groups of stakeholders involved in dredging decisions. Based on the results of the workshops and related research efforts, a user-friendly interface was created for the tool and an instruction manual that describes how to use the tool was developed. Furthermore, the tool was refined to better characterize specific types of habitat restoration, decision criteria, and social benefits. This tool will facilitate collective decisions that demonstrate how dredge can be beneficially used to restore habitats, provide economic benefits, and increase ecosystem services.