Bottoms up

The increasing volume of material dredged every year in waterway maintenance and new water construction projects, coupled with stricter environmental regulations, has provided engineers with opportunities to discover how this material can be used beneficially. Five case studies illustrate environmental and beneficial uses of dredged material from US ports and harbors. The Orion project, in New York Harbor near Newark, New Jersey, is a 67 ha former municipal landfill being redeveloped by OENJ Corp. In 1996, EPA Administrator Carol Browner, Secretary of Transportation Federico Pena, and Secretary of the Army Togo West Jr. designated the New York Bight Apex a historic area remediation site. Hart Miller Island is a 445 ha, 1.6 by 3.2 km dredged material placement facility in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, owned by the Maryland Port Administration and operated by Maryland Environmental Services. The Houston Ship Channel and the port of Los Angeles are also discussed.