Confined Disposal Facility Reclamation Research

The Dredging Operations and Environmental Research (DOER) Program at the Engineer Research and Development Center — Waterways Experiment Station is conducting research directed at reclaiming confined disposal facilities (CDFs) for dredged material. Reclamation research is being conducted on four fronts: soil separation, bioremediation, phytoremediation, and manufactured soil. The ultimate goal is to recover storage capacity in CDFs by converting CDFs to rehandling and treatment facilities for beneficial use of dredged material. DOER products that address dredged material characterization for beneficial use and implementation of a beneficial use plan for dredged material in CDFs are discussed. On the soils separation front, DOER products include technical notes that describe separation concepts, methods for calculating volumes of recoverable material meeting beneficial use requirements, data acquisition requirements, and statistical methods for sampling and data interpretation. The DOER bioremediation work unit has focused on field demonstrations of composting and land treatment technologies. Land treatment was especially effective for removal of PCBs from dredged material. Composting was partially effective for PCB removal. Phytoremediation is another potentially effective and affordable means of decontaminating dredged material. A field demonstration using phytoremediation is underway at the Milwaukee, WI CDF, and a number of green house studies are in progress. DOER products related to trash and debris removal and potential use of dredged material as manufactured soil are discussed. Brief descriptions of various field studies are presented.