A fact sheet is a one-page presentation of a currently funded DOER research unit. It is used to present the following information: (1) problem; (2) study description; (3) products; and (4) summary.
Focus Area: Dredged Material Management
Focus Area Leader: Brian McFall, Research Civil Engineer, Coastal Hydraulics Laboratory
Title: Beneficial Use Innovation for Dredged Material
POC: Alan Kennedy
Summary: The aim of this effort is to further the enterprise-wide beneficial use of dredged material by identifying it as a resource for sustainable, nature-based, cost-effective solution for managing our navigation channels and waterways, while fostering strong partnerships, collaborations, and relationships with stakeholders and agencies.
Focus Area: Dredged Material Management
Title: Utilization of Upper Mississippi River Dredged Sands for Beach Nourishment – Feasibility Study
POC: Benjamin Emery
Summary: This research will evaluate the feasibility of transporting UMR sands to select beach nourishment projects across the country. If the Federal Standard can be maintained across both supplying and gaining districts, the UMR Districts could significantly change how they manage dredged sediments and increase BU opportunities across nation.
Focus Area: Dredged Material Management
Title: Improved BUDM Laboratory Methods for Low Stress Consolidation and Erodibility
POC: Jack Cadigan
Summary: The USCAE is improving sediment characterization methodology as part of a larger effort to increase the beneficial use of dredged sediment across the nation. This project is developing a technique to characterize cohesive sediment consolidation and erodibility properties to better understand placed sediment from deposition to long-term behavior.
Focus Area: Dredged Material Management
Title: Innovative Dredging Technologies: Sediment Distribution Pipe
POC: David Perkey and Jarrell Smith
Summary: The USCAE is seeking ways to increase the beneficial use of dredged sediment across the nation. This project is developing a technique to hydraulically sort and simultaneously conduct targeted placement of dredged material. These methods could significantly reduce costs associated with rehandling sediment and make many BU projects more feasible for implementation.
Focus Area: Dredged Material Management
Title: Innovative Dredging Technologies – New Dredging and Placement Techniques
POC: Zachary Tyler
Summary: This project aims to address new and chronic dredging problems by introducing, studying the feasibility of, and further developing new dredging vessels and construction methods. The overall goal is to reduce the cost of dredging, supplement the U.S dredge fleet with new vessel designs and vessels. Additionally, this project intends to support those who demonstrate innovation in the field of dredging such as the North Carolina State Ports Authority and the Kansas State Water Office in their efforts to demonstrate and determine the feasibility of WID.
Focus Area: Dredged Material Management
Title: Monitoring Wetland Surface Elevation Post Beneficial Use via Remote Sensing
POC: Brian Harris
Summary: The USACE Districts require a cost effective method to monitor the placement of beneficial use dredged sediment in back-bay environments. However, traditional use of terrestrial and satellite methods do not provide sufficient spatial or temporal resolution. A field demonstration of two drone-based remote sensing techniques (e.g., photogrammetry and LiDAR) will be conducted during an upcoming BU project in NJ to determine if they are feasible for implementation in future projects.
Focus Area: Dredged Material Management
Title: Innovative Engineering with Nature (EWN) Construction Techniques
POC: Susan Bailey
Summary: A range of unique construction techniques are needed to perform EWN projects. This project will provide insight as to the current state of the science regarding EWN construction techniques and will inform future research needs. Information will also be provided as to how dredged material consolidation impacts EWN construction.
Focus Area: Dredged Material Management
Focus Area: Risk Management
Focus Area Leader: David Moore, Research Biologist, Environmental Laboratory
Title: Evaluating Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV) to Improve Habitat Monitoring Near Dredging Operations
POC: Andrew McQueen
Summary: This research will be beneficial to collecting specific and applicable real-time or near real-time water quality and soundscape data near dredging operations. If successful, these technologies can reduce the use of assumptions in analysis, improving and expediting the consultation process. The net benefit of the research would be a reduction in labor costs to the agencies and the public. The potential impacts to the Corps navigation mission extends to all Corps Districts with projects or studies involving dredging operations.
Focus Area: Risk Management
Title: Next Generation Dredged Material Evaluation: Bioaccumulation on a Chip
POC: Gui Lotufo
Summary: Bioaccumulation testing is the costliest and most time-consuming component of the required testing conducted for the assessment of dredged material. The proposed effort will establish robust approaches for bioaccumulation screening using polymer samplers and related devices for bioaccumulation CoCs. We will develop clear decision guidance that will indicate when bioaccumulation testing would be unnecessary and therefore accomplish substantial cost saving.
Focus Area: Risk Management
Title: Understanding Field Performance of Amendments as a Function of the Application
POC: Susan Bailey
Summary: The results of laboratory evaluation in combination with modeling will provide guidance to users to balance dosage needs with mixing and placement options to achieve the required performance of amendments over time and to develop realistic expectations for monitoring. Results will promote Engineering With Nature® projects, help meet USACE BU goals and reduce placement costs where open water placement would be restricted.
Focus Area: Risk Management
Title: Guidance for Communicating Risks of Microplastics and Nanoplastics in Dredged Sediments
POC: Andrew McQueen
Summary: This research will be beneficial to address precautionary, poorly informed regulatory decisions regarding the disposal of dredged sediment, inform approaches to standardized methods, and inform definitions of micro- and nanoplastic. In the absence of data, often overly conservative (and unrealistic) safety factors and thresholds are applied which adversely impact the USACE dredging mission. This research will complement and build a decision support roadmap for USACE response to microplastic concerns based upon recently completed DOER research and would leverage the congressional research on nanomaterials.
Focus Area: Risk Management
Title: Next Gen Dredging/Water Quality Evaluation, Monitoring and Sensing for Risk Management
POC: Alan Kennedy
Summary: The result of this effort is a compelling, data-based argument that more robust monitoring automation with operational adjustments can supersede imprudent, repeated full re-evaluations at taxpayer’s expense. This effort defines a strategic roadmap to improve value of current and future sediment and water quality monitoring and management decisions directly of value to the USACE dredging and sustainability missions. This effort projects significant modernization in the data interpretation, analysis and collection approaches through faster and cheaper monitoring and sensors. USACE would realize cost savings by reducing: (1) imprudent evaluations; (2) dredging monitoring in low-risk areas; and (3) collection of irrelevant data not used for management decisions. The result will be increased understanding of current motivation for, and purpose of USACE water/sediment quality monitoring and a path to improve the relevancy and quality of the data collected to facilitate near-real time visualization and better-informed risk management decisions during dredging.
Focus Area: Risk Management
Title: Development of Regional Background Levels for Sediment Associated PFAS in the Great Lakes
POC: Gui Lotufo
Summary: Per- and polyfluorinated alkylated substances (PFAS) are a ubiquitous class of emerging contaminants of concern known to cause human health effects at exceedingly low environmental concentrations. Given the ubiquity of PFAS, near certainty of their presence in dredged materials, and increasingly stringent regulatory levels, a key critical first step will be the development of a basis for contextual understanding of sediment associated concentrations of PFAS. We propose to derive regional background concentrations for sediment associated PFAS using data from recent sediment surveys along with data from sediment samples to be collected for this project in proximity of USACE managed federal navigation channels throughout the Great Lakes. Sediment PFAS concentrations will also be used to develop or model regional background values for sediment elutriates.
Focus Area: Risk Management
Title: Preliminary Risk-Based Guidance for the assessment of PFAS in Dredged Material
POC: Gui Lotufo
Summary: Interpretive guidance for the assessment and management of PFAS in sediment, surface water, and dredged material is urgently needed so that Districts to address the presence of PFAS in dredged materials. A series of laboratory studies will be conducted using representative freshwater and marine sediments to determine the potential for adverse impacts potential of PFAS to the benthos and to higher-trophic-level biota in the aquatic food webs. We will also conduct an evaluation of the effectiveness of potential treatment options for sediment-associated PFAS.
Focus Area: Risk Management
POC: Alan Kennedy
Summary: A customizable, fit-for-purpose monitoring technology resulting from this research will provide insight to down-select DM sites potentially needing remediation measures versus areas where CoC bioavailability is of lesser concern. We will expand low-cost 3D printing technology to be amenable to on-site, on-vessel, on-demand materials for remediation (adsorption, destruction) and monitoring to down select and reduce cost of analyzing traditional and emerging contaminants of concern and field deploy the technology to address scalability. USACE would realize cost savings by reducing: (1) imprudent evaluations; or (2) dredging to remove low risk materials.
Products:
Video: Materials fabrication and dredging assessment scenarios using low-cost 3D printing applications
Focus Area: Risk Management
POC: Taylor Rycroft and Scott Stone
Summary: This study will determine whether a robust AI/ML algorithm can provide a faster, cheaper, and more accurate prediction of Tier III testing outcomes than current operating procedures can offer, thereby streamlining dredged material evaluations and expediting the risk-informed planning phase of USACE feasibility studies.
Focus Area: Risk Management
POC: Gui Lotufo
Summary: Bioaccumulation testing is the costliest and most time consuming component of the required testing conducted for the evaluation of dredged material (DM). The current suite of bioaccumulation tests requires large volumes of sediment to be collected, shipped and processed under controlled conditions. The objective of this project is to assess the benefits and viability of standardizing miniaturized benthic bioaccumulation tests and micro analytical methods to optimize bioaccumulation testing while meeting regulatory requirements for adequately assessing potential for biological impacts.
Focus Area: Risk Management
Focus Area: Environmental Resource Management
Focus Area Leader: Todd Swannack, Ph.D., Research Biologist, Environmental Laboratory
Title: Testing Tickler Chain Efficacy for Reduction in Endangered Species Takes
POC: Matt Balazik and Ben Emery
Summary: Both the dredge industry and USACE are interested in having TCs replace the draghead deflectors currently used on USACE projects. There is currently no knowledge on whether TC arrays are an effective means of protecting species of concern, mainly sea turtles, from entrainment by dragheads. Taking a proactive approach by increasing our knowledge of how species of concern react when they encounter TCs will help USACE efforts to change current deflectors with TC on dredge projects. If TC arrays do replace draghead deflectors, all of USACE will benefit from increased production rates and decreased fuel and carbon footprint.
Focus Area: Environmental Resource Management
POC: Todd Swannack
Summary: The objectives of this research task will be to quantify the engineering and environmental benefits of the USACE dredge placement area network. This effort will provide USACE operations managers with a quantitative tool to optimize the location of a new DPA to maximize its benefits within the broader DPA and landscape networks.
Focus Area: Environmental Resource Management
POC: Todd Swannack
Summary: Optimizing operational efficiency for dredging is a primary concern affecting the USACE Civil Works mission. Currently, dredging operations are constrained by restrictions designed to reduce incidental mortality on threatened and endangered species. In coastal waters, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) sets incidental take limits in Biological Opinions for USACE dredging projects. These take limits are often based on the precautionary principle and do not often consider current data. This study will quantify incidental take limits imposed upon USACE and present them in the context of take limits for other agencies and industries.
Focus Area: Environmental Resource Management
Title: Threatened and Endangered Species Team (TEST)
POC: Rich Fischer
Summary: The Threatened and Endangered Species Team exists to streamline Section 7 consultations, reduce costs, and minimize TES impacts to USACE missions. The TEST accelerates development of solutions for priority TES issues that will improve budget planning capabilities and operational flexibility to reduce future costs and adverse impacts to USACE mission execution.
Focus Area: Environmental Resource Management
Focus Area: Sediment and Dredging Processes
Focus Area Leader: Duncan Bryant, Research Hydraulic Engineer, Coastal Hydraulics Laboratory
Title: Strategic Placement at Marsh Edge as Sediment Source to Marsh Interior
POC: Jarrell Smith
Summary: To expand beneficial use of fine-grained dredged sediment, the USACE must develop innovative and cost-effective practices for strategic placement near coastal marshes. Strategic placement near the marsh edge is one such cost effective measure. This project develops observational and modeling approaches to define conditions under which strategic placement at the marsh edge can deliver sediment deep into marsh interiors without the expensive and often intrusive practice of direct placement onto the marsh surface.
Focus Area: Sediment and Dredging Processes
Title: Evaluating Bedload Sediment Collectors to By-Pass Shoaling Sediment
POC: Chuck Theiling
Summary: This research will evaluate the effectiveness of bedload sediment collector by-pass systems which may be an alternative to replace dredging and keep sediment in transport where river current velocity alone is insufficient. This research could lead to significant changes and cost savings for riverine channel management, and it is applicable in coastal settings too.
Focus Area: Sediment and Dredging Processes
Title: Dredged Material Placement Models for Complex Aquatic Environments
POC: Tahirih Lackey
Summary: The product of this research task will provide a broadly applicable method to evaluate dredging and placement operations within a single user-friendly interface. The model will be able to readily access USACE databases as well as directly generate input required for far-field fate and long-term fate models. District users will no longer require of multiple model interfaces and will not have to post-process data before implementing long-term or far-field models which use dredging model output. Improved physics and process descriptions will improve model accuracy and range of applicability.
Focus Area: Sediment and Dredging Processes
Title: Improving Aquatic Placement Practices for Beneficial Use of Dredged Material in the Great Lakes
POC: Karen Keil
Summary: This research would aid USACE by removing the ambiguity and uncertainty regarding nearshore placement opportunities and approaches in freshwater systems. It would complement and build upon recently completed USACE-ERDC research exploring nearshore placement techniques. By leveraging prior Great Lakes ecosystem restoration projects and supporting future projects, the outcomes of this research task would have wide-reaching benefits not only to the USACE but also numerous state and federal resource management agencies and stakeholders.
Focus Area: Sediment and Dredging Processes
Title: Riverine Aquatic Placement Beneficial Use Guidance
POC: Burton Suedel
Summary: Beneficial use guidance for riverine features built with dredged sediment simultaneously supports USACE Navigation and Ecosystem Restoration business lines by developing sustainable dredged sediment management practices which re-introduce complex morphology to rivers that will support improved bank stabilization, enhance channel stability, and increase habitat diversity. In-water placement may be more sustainable but can also be accomplished at reduced cost relative to alternatives that remove the sediment from the aquatic system and otherwise restrict the benefits that can be achieved through sediment beneficial use practices that engineer with nature.
Focus Area: Sediment and Dredging Processes