Dredging Operations and

Environmental Research

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Current Research Fact Sheets

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.

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Dredged Material Management
Environmental Resource Management
Innovation in Sediment Management
Risk Management
Sediment and Dredging Processes
Treatment of Contaminated Sediment to Facilitate Beneficial Use
Focus Area: Dredged Material Management
Focus Area Leader: Brian McFall, Research Civil Engineer, Coastal Hydraulics Laboratory

Title: Decision Tool for Identifying Beneficial Uses of Dredged Material using Enhanced Machine Learning

POC: Scott Slone

Summary: A detailed method for predicting and recommend beneficial uses of dredged material will guide future utilization to meet USACE beneficial use goals. This research topic will identify the capabilities of currently available dredge material databases, test those capabilities with a decision tree machine learning model, and draft a workflow for the creation of future machine learning tools. This research topic will increase USACE understanding of the utilization of dredge material and the appropriateness for machine learning models to assist in decision making.

Focus Area: Dredged Material Management

Title: Bio-inspired adhesion of dredge sediment for 3D printing field placement applications

POC: Mark Ballentine

Summary: Detailed methods and understanding for non-fire adhesives for dredge sediments solidification will be developed for field site placement of dredge material structures. This research topic will explore and develop optimal methods for the use of bioinspired adhesive for dredge sediment for field placement, determine the non-fire solidified dredge sediment structures durability, and quantify site impacts. The research topic will increase the USACE capabilities for beneficial use of dredge sediments by creating durable structures with onsite technologies.

Focus Area: Dredged Material Management

Title: Enhancing strategic placement of dredged material with nature-based features for sediment retention

POC: Danielle Tarpley and Jarrell Smith

Summary: Additional strategies for the beneficial use of dredged material are needed for USACE to reach the target of using 70% of dredge material beneficially by 2030. This project aims to expand USACE placement strategies by evaluating the feasibility of directly placing material in tidal channels with natural retention features to deliver sediment to targeted areas that would benefit from an increase in sediment supply.

Focus Area: Dredged Material Management

Title: Rapid Assessment of BUDM Alternatives for Coastal Wetlands

POC: Jarrell Smith

Summary: To expand beneficial use of fine-grained dredged sediment, the USACE must develop innovative, science-based, and cost-effective practices for sediment placement near coastal marshes. This research will develop a rapid assessment tool for evaluation of BUDM techniques near coastal marshes. This tool will be based on thousands of pre-computed marsh morphology simulations to allow managers to identify suitable BUDM techniques for the targeted environment. The rapid assessment tool will help practitioners to identify effective alternatives for expanding beneficial use of coastal dredged sediment, saving $10M+ per year in dredging cost while increasing ecosystem, flood, and storm reduction benefits.

Focus Area: Dredged Material Management

Title: CorpsCam: Developing Guidance Documents for Utilizing Low-Cost Imagery for Monitoring Dredged Material

POC: Sean McGill

Summary: This research will develop two new technical guidance documents for District partners to reference. The results will allow for cheaper and more efficient monitoring of ongoing BUDM projects.

Focus Area: Dredged Material Management

Title: Enhancing Confined Disposal Facilities Operation to Support Coastal Resiliency

POC: Brian Harris and Justin Shawler

Summary: The USACE currently seeks to beneficially use 70% of dredged material but contaminated sediment still relies on placement in CDFs. This project supports restoring CDF capacity for contaminated sediment by co-developing with districts guidance for characterizing, extracting, and beneficially re-using clean sediment.

Products:
Data Set: UAS Orthomosaic Imagery and Lidar-Derived Digital Elevation Models for the Cape May, Railroad, and Ocean City Confined Disposal Facilities, New Jersey, USA

Focus Area: Dredged Material Management

Title: Dredge Sediment Placement For Phytoremediation and Upland Placement Site Restoration

POC: Mark L. Ballentine

Summary: A detailed method and understanding of the potential for upland plant phytoremediation and upland replacement using dredge sediment will guide future beneficial use of dredge sediment to meet USACE beneficial use goals. This research topic will explore, develop optimal methods, and guide the use of dredge sediments for the 3D printing designs for upland field placement for phytoremediation of contaminants. The research topic will increase USACE understanding of potential new ways of beneficially using dredge sediment for contaminant remediation and site restoration.

Focus Area: Dredged Material Management

Title: Decision Support for Managers Restoring Texas Marshes with BUDM

POC: Brian Harris

Summary: The USACE currently seeks to beneficially use 70% of dredged material and a primary tactic to achieve this is via thin layer placement however much remains unknown about the long-term ecological stability and function of these sites. The USACE-ERDC is partnering with USGS, DU, USFWS, and TPWD to develop a Texas BUDM Master Plan. The overarching objective of this effort is to inform wetland restoration efforts that will reduce threats of sea-level rise and extreme storm events to coastal marshes.

Products:
Book Chapter: Elevating Coastal Wetland Restoration

Focus Area: Dredged Material Management

Title: Rapid Tools for Nearshore Placement of Dredged Material

POC: Brian McFall and Doug Krafft

Summary: This project will improve the enterprise’s ability to rapidly scope nearshore placement alternatives for dredged sediment on the open coast by developing rapid tools to predict whether dredged sediment placed in the nearshore will be active and how the shoreline will respond. Better rapid predictions support the USACE goal of beneficially using 70% of dredged sediment by 2030.

Focus Area: Dredged Material Management

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.

Products:
Factsheet: Dredge Technology Innovation (11 Oct 2023 presentation)

Storyboard: Beneficial Use Innovation for Dredged Material

Technical Note:
Ousley, J.D., Skelton, K.C., Strevig, M., Farrar, J.D., Kress, M.M., Mohan, R.K., and Kennedy, A.J. (2024). Hurdles to beneficial use of dredged material: root cause analysis (ERDC-TN DOER-24-1), Technical Note. U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, Mississippi. https://hdl.handle.net/11681/48256

Focus Area: Dredged Material Management

Focus Area: Innovation in Sediment Management - Innovative Construction and Operations Technologies
Focus Area Leader: Brian McFall, Research Civil Engineer, Coastal Hydraulics Laboratory

Title: Attrition of Mud Aggregates through Dredge Pipelines for Beneficial Use Projects

POC: Anthony Priestas, David Perkey, Jarrell Smith , and Danielle Tarpley

Summary: Understanding aggregate durability and attrition behavior though hydraulic pipelines will facilitate the selection of the most appropriate use cases for dredged FGS and optimize operational planning. This knowledge will be realized through the use of a predictive tool to anticipate changes in the size of mud aggregates based on sediment characteristics and transport distance. Ultimately, this RT shows promise to improve construction planning and ensure resource-efficient dredging operations.

Focus Area: Innovation in Sediment Management - Innovative Construction and Operations Technologies

Title: Innovative Rapid Riverine Shoal Removal Technology RT24-17

POC: Andrew Collins and David Yearwood

Summary: The USACE is seeking ways to efficiently maintain riverine channels. This project is developing a system to dredge shoaling areas by combining barge technologies and water injection dredging practices. This system could significantly reduce costs associated with dredging operations as well as reduce the total carbon footprint required to maintain navigation channels.

Focus Area: Innovation in Sediment Management - Innovative Construction and Operations Technologies

Title: Development of Dredge Outfall Seeding Method for Rapid Establishment of BU Projects

POC: Jack Cadigan

Summary: Recently placed Dredged Sediments used for Beneficial Use purposes in Coastal, Marsh, and Riverine settings can be subject to flooding/wave wash/and high velocity flows that risk washing away these soils. Mixing select rapid growth seed variations into the dredged slurry at the time of placement could help stabilize the dredged sediment sooner, as well as reduce costs from direct plantings. CHL/CRREL will look to identify rapidly germinating seeds with strong root systems that are native and/or can be overtaken by native species. This proposed work will identify which plant species are best suited for thin layer placement by examining the thresholds (velocities) that these seeds can withstand in slurry, along with dredging velocity outputs for various sized dredges to determine the optimal dredge size/production needed to maintain O&M needs while being able to deliver seeds to marsh.

Innovation in Sediment Management - Innovative Construction and Operations Technologies

Title: Innovative Placement Techniques and Sediment Monitoring

POC: Brian McFall and Doug Krafft

Summary: The public often prefers for dredged sediment to be placed on the subaerial beach where it can be visually observed. The cross-shore swash zone (CSSZ) placement technique is a cost effective placement technique where the dredge’s discharge pipe is placed in the swash zone and slowly maneuvered away from the land to create a shoreline perpendicular spit. Chicago District (LRC) has an opportunity to build a CSSZ placement at the National Park Service’s Portage Lakefront & Riverwalk, which provides a unique monitoring opportunity to study the construction technique and the morphological evolution of the placement.

Focus Area: Innovation in Sediment Management - Innovative Construction and Operations Technologies

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: Innovation in Sediment Management - Innovative Construction and Operations Technologies

Title: Autonomous Dredging in USACE

POC: Brandan Scully

Summary: The dredging industry has identified autonomous dredging as a near-term possibility. USACE has the opportunity to identify where this emerging technology fits within its current dredging practice. This effort will distill the opinions of USACE experts across a range of dredging related disciplines into a whitepaper outlining the opportunities and obstacles anticipated for USACE to implement autonomous dredging into its future dredging practice.

Focus Area: Innovation in Sediment Management - Innovative Construction and Operations Technologies

Title: Innovative Dredging Technologies – Water Injection Dredging

POC: Zachary Tyler

Summary: Reservoirs and dams with fluidizable and slow settling sediments that may be transported by density current to outlet works may find water injection dredging an applicable sediment management strategy.

Focus Area: Innovation in Sediment Management - Innovative Construction and Operations Technologies and Practices

Focus Area: Risk Management
Focus Area Leader: David Moore, Research Biologist, Environmental Laboratory

Title: Phytoremediation Legacy: Evaluating the Long-Term Phytoremediation Effectiveness at USACE Dredged Material Sites

POC: Andrew McQueen

Summary: This project will evaluate long-term phytoremediation performance at historic USACE dredged material sites by examining representative contaminants—such as heavy metals, PAHs, and PCBs—and tracking changes in concentration, speciation, and bioavailability over time. Field monitoring will pair contaminant fate assessments with measurements of vegetation performance, including species persistence, biomass production, and contaminant uptake, alongside biogeochemical indicators such as redox conditions and rhizosphere microbial activity. These data will significantly improve the predictability and acceptance of phytoremediation for managing contaminated or marginally contaminated sediments, strengthening risk-based sediment management and advancing beneficial use opportunities across USACE projects. Collaboration will include USACE Districts, federal resource agencies (EPA, NOAA, USFWS), technical communities of practice, and academic partners. Findings will be transferred through workshops, a web-accessible database, technical reports, and peer-reviewed publications, distributed via the DOER Program, ERDC Knowledge Core, and Navigation and Dredging CoPs. Primary users of this information will be USACE District environmental and operations staff, project managers, regulatory reviewers, and interagency partners involved in beneficial use planning and decision-making.

Focus Area: Risk Management

Title: Partitioning of PFAS and Metals in Dredging Operations: A Scientific Basis Toward Compliance Under Challenging Regulations

POC: Gui Lotufo

Summary: The objective of the proposed research is to investigate the factors that influence the partitioning of PFAS and metals between sediment and water. Representative USACE project harbor sediments from the Great Lakes and from coastal areas will be evaluated. Sediment attributes and PFAS chemistry will be correlated with distribution coefficients. Critical information regarding PFAS partitioning and predicting releases of PFAS to the water column and the effectiveness of elutriate testing for estimating this will provide benefit to the USACE districts, and Army missions that require work with PFAS-containing sediments and compliance with state and federal regulations. Representative USACE project harbor sediments and sediments from other suitable locations (e.g., not contaminated by known point source) from the Great Lakes and from coastal areas will be evaluated.

Focus Area: Risk Management

Title: New kids on the block: Evaluation of alternative species for marine sediment bioaccumulation assessment

POC: Gui Lotufo

Summary: The goal of the project is the selection of an appropriate new test species for sediment bioaccumulation tests that can be field-collected year-round, harbors minimal background whole-body contamination, and meets test species requirements described in guidance documents. We will conduct a side-by-side comparison study with Macoma nasuta and the purple varnish clam (Nuttallia obscurata), which occurs in the Pacific Northwest. Reduced reliance on a species with limited availability will reduce likelihood of costly project delays. The scientifically validated use of alternate marine clam species that may be utilized with confidence will benefit all Corps districts that conduct coastal navigation dredging.

Focus Area: Risk Management

Title: Food Web-Based Computational Tool to Estimate PFAS Risk to Human Health

POC: Kurt Gust

Summary: The food-web model developed to estimate the human health risk associated with PFAS contamination in dredged sediments will directly support the Great Lakes region by providing quantitative risk characterization tool to support risk-management decisions for dredged material placement in aquatic environments, including BUDM applications. Access to high quality science-based risk characterization information for dredged sediments will greatly increase the frequency in which decision makers can confidently choose to use dredged materials as BUDM when, otherwise, only a precautionary principle may be available, given existing uncertainties surrounding PFAS health risk. Consequently, the USACE goal of applying 70% of dredged sediment in BUDM applications is more likely to be met while simultaneously establishing improved environmental stewardship and human health protection.

Focus Area: Risk Management

Title: In Situ BU of Contaminated Sediments: Leveraging Dredged Sediment for Enhancing Aquatic Habitats

POC: Burton Suedel

Summary: This project will address the USACE 70/30 BU goal by providing systematic, large-scale opportunities for BU of dredged material. Simultaneously, this project will support aquatic ecosystem restoration and navigation missions. Of note is that many sediment remediation projects are located near urban areas where aquatic and wetland habitat are scarce, and dredging is imperative for maintaining harbor functions. Marrying habitat restoration with dredged material will help support both these USACE missions. Identifying and demonstrating in-water BU will help support cost effective dredged material management. This project will support ecosystem restoration while building relationships and opportunities across agencies, which will in turn expand future options for interagency collaborations and BU.

Products:
Journal Article:
J. Miller, T. Cardona, S. Copp Franz, V. Magar, B. Suedel. 2025. Identification of Beneficial Use of Sediment and Habitat Restoration Needs at Contaminated Great Lakes Coastal Areas. WEDA Journal of Dredging. 22(2):19-35. https://westerndredging.org/phocadownload/WEDA-Journal-of-Dredging-Volume-22-No-2-Nov-2025.pdf

Storyboard: DOER 24-09 TANNERY BAY, SAULT STE. MARIE, MI SITE VISIT 12 AUGUST 2025

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.

Products:
Journal Article:
Thermodynamic exposure reductions of PCBs available to Lumbriculus variegatus in Lake Erie region sediments amended with activated carbon

Technical Note: Examination of Activated Carbon Losses During Open Water Placement of Amended Dredged Material for Bioaccumulation Control

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 with exceedingly low environmental screening or regulatory levels. Given the ubiquity of PFAS, near certainty of their presence in sediments 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 collected for this project in proximity to USACE managed federal navigation channels throughout the Great Lakes.

Focus Area: Risk Management

Focus Area: Environmental Resource Management
Focus Area Leader: Todd Swannack, Ph.D., Research Biologist, Environmental Laboratory

Title: Advancing the Use of AUV and ROV Technologies for Benthic Habitat Assessment

POC: Shea Hammond

Summary: Unmanned underwater systems offer potentially superior survey capabilities through high-resolution imaging and precision navigation. These platforms enable access to high-risk or logistically challenging environments and support repeatable, spatially comprehensive data collection over extensive benthic areas. By operating beneath the air-sea interface, these vehicles decouple sensor payload from surface wave action, capturing stabilized, high-resolution datasets that are often degraded by motion artifacts in traditional vessel-mounted surveys. Integration of automated image segmentation, multibeam bathymetry, and sonar mosaicking workflows facilitates rapid, high-throughput classification of habitat features. This research will result in an unmanned underwater systems-based ecological survey framework, optimized to support environmental compliance and dredging operations.

Focus Area: Environmental Resource Management

Title: Modeling framework for the development of adaptive environmental windows

POC: Margaret Kurth

Summary: An optimization framework for refining Environmental Windows to simultaneously protect sensitive species while increasing dredge operations efficiency will be developed, tested, and iteratively improved through a series of applications. The process will be documented in a playbook to aid USACE districts to explore tradeoffs and develop quantitative information to engage resource agencies. It is expected that short-term impacts can be balanced with long-term, system-wide benefits and that these can be systematically explore in an optimization framework. This can help USACE districts to overcome current challenges to realizing benefits by placing dredge material to create and restore natural infrastructure.

Focus Area: Environmental Resource Management

Title: Coastal Wetland Functional Assessment Modeling

POC: Candice Piercy and Nia Hurst

Summary: Research is needed to better predict the effect of sediment application on wetland function, anticipate future sediment application needs, and reduce the uncertainty of long-term benefits. This project evaluates the usage of modeling outputs informed by wetland functional assessment metrics to plan wetland sediment placement recovery and trajectory. Methodologies and tools will be developed to enable Districts to better communicate and quantify expected benefits and draw backs of BU projects to resource agencies and stakeholders.

Focus Area: Environmental Resource Management

Title: Dredging placement to sustain navigation dredging and T&E species

POC: Safra Altman, Matt Balazik, and Ben Emery

Summary: The main objectives of this research task are to provide empirical data on the impacts, or lack thereof, of in-water placement on selected sensitive and T&E Species and to provide those data to USACE districts to help alleviate concern by resource managers.

Products:
Published Datasets:
In-water placement and threatened and endangered species datasets : James River, VA case study

Focus Area: Environmental Resource Management

Title: Characterization of Biological Effects of Open Water Placement Sites

POC: Brett Hayhurst

Summary: This research will be conducting by collecting multiple lines of evidence, including

  • Engagements with resource agencies;
  • Data mining and literature review;
  • Physical characterization of open water placement sites;
  • Monitoring of fish behavior near open water placement sites;
  • Modeling of ecosystem benefits compared to reference sites based on data collected.
If positive long-term environmental effects are identified in association with traditional open water placement of dredged sediment, the management of dredged sediment will become more cost effective and efficient. Moreover, this would provide a scientifically sound basis to inform and optimize the management of dredged sediment at open water sites to further enhance and benefit the aquatic ecosystem.

Products:
Presentation:
From Disposal to Beneficial Use: Key Factors Influencing Fish Habitat Following Open Water Placement. Presentation to Western Dredging Association Dredging Summit and Exposition, June 2024.

Journal Article:
McQueen, A. D., Hayhurst, B., Pickard, S., Wilkens, J., & Keil, K. (2025). Focused Review of Factors Influencing Fish at Underwater Features Created with Dredged Sediments: Path Toward Expanding Beneficial Use? Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management, vjaf152. https://doi.org/10.1093/inteam/vjaf152 Data Mapper:
Great Lakes DOER OWP Data Layer

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 the 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: Flocculation and Settling Dynamics of Carbonate Plumes to Improve Transport Predictions

POC: Anthony M. Priestas

Summary: This research will establish the first known scientific understanding of how carbonate muds flocculate, settle, and disperse during dredging. Flocculation experiments using a Taylor-Couette cell will provide the empirical data comparing the floc behavior of natural versus dredge-generated muds. Field measurements of carbonate plumes during an active dredging project will validate the laboratory results and help refine PTM sediment inputs to improve transport predictions. Improved PTM predictions enables a more reliable assessment of sedimentation impacts to reduce environmental, legal, and financial risk to USACE.

Focus Area: Sediment and Dredging Processes

Title: Characterization of the Spread of Fine-Grained Sediment for Beneficial Use of Dredge Material

POC: De'Arius Christmas and Nathan Madsen

Summary: The purpose of this effort is to enhance the knowledge of FGS placement for BU practices by conducting both a laboratory- and field-based study. The findings of this study will be utilized to enhance research needs on FG-BUDM practices. The effort will include the collaboration with the Philadelphia District, The Wetlands Institute, and in-house program teams.

Products:
Technical Report:
Yearwood, D.C., Hardy, C.J., Tyler, Z.J., Eckstein, A.M., Harris, B.D., McFall, B.C., Perkey, D.W., and Welp, T.L. (2024). Hydraulic sorting of dredged sediment in a pipeline : an evaluation of the sediment distribution pipe (ERDC-CHL TR-24-1), Technical Report. U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, Mississippi. https://hdl.handle.net/11681/48219

Focus Area: Sediment and Dredging Processes

Focus Area: Public Private Partnership: Innovative Technologies for Managing / Treating Contaminated Sediment to Expand Beneficial Use Opportunities
Focus Area Leader: David Moore, Ph.D., Senior Research Biologist, Environmental Laboratory

Title: Sediment Bacteria Mining for Beneficial Reuse

Technical Project Lead: Clara Austin, AECOM
PPP Program Lead: David Moore, ERDC-EL

Summary: The purpose of the study is experimental and designed to be a proof-of-concept determination on whether bacteria residing in contaminated sediments can also adapt in plant tissues as inoculants or endophytes to enhance breakdown of contaminants using the application of phytoremediation.

Products:
Storyboard: Bacteria Mining to Enhance Phytoremediation of Contaminated Sediments for Beneficial Reuse

Focus Area: Treatment of Contaminated Sediment to Facilitate Beneficial Use

Title: Field Technology Deployment Public-Private Partnership: Beneficial Use of Contaminated Dredged Material

Technical Project Lead: Dr. Ram Mohan, Anchor QEA
PPP Program Lead: David Moore, ERDC-EL

Summary: The aim of this study is to foster consideration of BU of CDM as part of national legacy contaminated site remediation projects via close coordination between USACE and USEPA along with other key stakeholders. Study products will be used to document technology effectiveness and utility.

Products:
Special Report:
Moore, D. W. and Mohan, R. K. (2025). Beneficial use of contaminated sediments : a review of technical, policy, and regulatory needs. (ERDC-EL SR-25-7), Special Report. U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, Mississippi. https://hdl.handle.net/11681/50004

Storyboard: Management of Contaminated Sediment for Habitat Uplift & Restoration

Focus Area: Treatment of Contaminated Sediment to Facilitate Beneficial Use

Title: Repurposing CDFs for Contaminated Sediments. A Win-Win for Beneficial Use

Technical Project Lead: Staci Goetz, Ramboll
PPP Program Lead: David Moore, ERDC-EL

Summary: This project will perform an LCA that includes a Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA), for select Detroit District CDFs as a model for value creation through beneficial sediment use from CDFs, and using remaining or created CDF capacity for permanent contaminated-sediment disposal. When filled, CDFs with contaminated sediment can be capped and used beneficially as newly created uplands. Combined, the beneficial use of CDF sediment, repurposing CDFs for contaminated sediment, and beneficial use of contaminated sediment through new land creation are inherently circular and sustainable.

Products:
Storyboard: Application of LCA and CBA to Facilitate Beneficial Use of Sediments from CDFs

Poster: Increasing Sustainable Beneficial Use Opportunities Working With Contaminated Sediment

Focus Area: Treatment of Contaminated Sediment to Facilitate Beneficial Use

Title: Laboratory scale evaluation of combining AOP with sediment stabilization for beneficial use.

Technical Project Lead: Balaji Rao, Texas Tech University
PPP Program Lead: David Moore, ERDC-EL

Summary: There is a growing need to find solutions that address removal of contaminants from sediments to enable beneficial use. A series of laboratory studies will be conducted to assess the efficacy of AOP based sediment treatment followed by sediment stabilization using binders. The results from this study are expected to provide additional options for ex-situ-based sediment management.

Products:
Storyboard: AOP based sediment treatment and stabilization for Beneficial use

Focus Area: Treatment of Contaminated Sediment to Facilitate Beneficial Use

Last updated on 1/23/2026.