Navigating the Regulatory Environment: Beneficial Use of Dredged Sand in New Bedford Harbor

摘要

Navigational dredging in New Bedford Harbor has become prohibitively expensive due to issues associated with dredging and off-site disposal of contaminated sediment. As a result, The City of New Bedford has designed and constructed a series of confined aquatic disposal (CAD) cells within the harbor for disposal of contaminated dredged sediment. This paper focuses on the reuse of clean sand excavated from a CAD cell within the harbor as cap material for an area of contaminated sediment in the outer harbor. Design of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Superfund cap was performed through a partnership with the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), USEPA and Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MADEP). Construction of the cap involved placement of sand using split hull barges in shallow water conditions (less than 10 ft), while maintaining minimum and maximum cap thickness between 2 and 6 ft.