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Guide to Policies and Projects Related to Beneficial Use of Dredged Material in the Great LakesBy Karen Keil, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Word From the Non-federal Co-chair

This past July, the Great Lakes Dredging Team published a Guide to Policies and Projects Related to Beneficial Use of Dredged Material in the Great Lakes. This Guide provides an overview of Great Lakes state and federal policies pertaining to the ben-eficial use of dredged material, case studies of projects around the basin and the na-tion, and “lessons learned” from successful projects. Communities across the country, including those around the Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Estuary, Galveston Bay, Hudson Raritan Estuary, Cleveland Lakefront, Grand Haven Harbor, and Green Bay have benefited from using dredged material generated from local navigation projects. Additionally, critical dredged material management challenges exist in several Great Lakes navigation channels, ports, and harbors as con-fined disposal facilities (CDFs) reach capacity. Limited CDF capacity is an opportuni-ty for states and local stakeholders to beneficially use dredged sediments generated from maintenance dredging or harvested from CDFs. Increasing beneficial use of dredged material is a key part of identifying a viable and sustainable solution for managing dredged material in the Great Lakes region. When and where appropriate, successful beneficial use projects can yield benefits well beyond those of traditional dredged material management and CDF placement since they offer reliable sources of sediment for aquat-ic habitat improvement, brownfield restoration, road construction, mine reclamation, industrial redevelopment, and other uses.

would like to use this opportunity to talk about benefits. Beneficial uses of dredged material are a key element in addressing our dredging needs in a socio-economic and environmental manner. As a group, we need to continue to be engaged, creative and em-

brace a collective problem-solving perspective. We need arms uncrossed and folks leaning in talking about what they can do versus a litany of woes. This means we need you at the table. I specifically ask my state colleagues to have representatives from your various agencies actively engaged in the GLDT. We need a big-tent perspective driven to active problem solving. I’m asking for your ongoing help so that we can keep the progress going. The environment and economy of our communities will reap the benefits of our collabor-ative efforts.

Dredging Dispatch

by Stephen Galarneau, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

THE GREAT LAKES

VOLUME 2, NO. 2 - NOVEMBER 2016

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Supporting efficient and responsible dredgingfor the Great Lakes region

The Great Lakes Dredging Dispatch is produced on behalf of the Great Lakes Dredging Team by the Great Lakes Commission.

Funding for the newsletter is provided by the Great Lakes Commission. The content, views and opinions expressed in the newsletter do not necessarily reflect

the official policy or position of any agency, company or organization that participates with or is a member of the Great Lakes Dredging Team.

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Beneficial Use of Dredged Material: The Senate bill clar-ifies that dredged material disposal does not require op-eration and maintenance and can be a single application of sediment. It allows use of dredged material from a non-federal project if obtained at non-federal expense. The House bill directs the Corps to establish 10 geographically diverse pilot projects for beneficial reuse of dredged ma-terial to be carried out with the help of regional beneficial reuse teams. The projects are to maximize the beneficial reuse of dredged material based solely on the environmental, economic, and social benefits of the projects, including monetary and nonmonetary benefits, notwithstanding the current practices of the Corps. The Corps is encouraged to consider projects in inland regions such as the Great Lakes.

Non-Federal Interest Dredging Authority: The Senate bill establishes a pilot program authorizing non-federal interests to maintain a federal navigation project with its own equip-ment and personnel and be eligible for reimbursement for performance of the work.

Priority funding for the Great Lakes Navigation System (GLNS): Both House and Senate bills make permanent the authorization of 10% of priority Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF) appropriations (above FY 2012 levels) for the GLNS (as opposed to just through FY 2024 as called for in the 2014 WRDA bill).

HMTF funding floor: The Senate bill would establish a HMTF floor mechanism to ensure annual HMTF funding does not decrease during the build-up to full use of annual HMTF revenues.

Implementation guidance on the GLNS: The Senate bill requires the Corps to publish guidance on implementing the 2014 WRDA provision directing it to manage the Great Lakes as a single, comprehensive navigation system.

Dredged Material Disposal: The Senate bill requires dredged material disposal to meet state water quality standards be considered in compliance with the federal standard for dredged material disposal. It authorizes the placement of dredged material in a location other than the least cost alternative if any additional costs will be offset by the resulting environmental, flood protection, and resil-iency benefits.

Congress Poised to Pass WRDA LegislationBy Matt Doss, Great Lakes Commission

Successful projects to date indicate that beneficial use is best accomplished when led by local stakeholders. Positive stakeholder involvement can have a profound effect on the suc-cess of beneficial use projects. Dredged material management is more and more becoming a shared responsibility between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and harbor stakeholders. Development of this Guide was truly a team effort for the Great Lakes Dredging Team. A draft of the Guide was dissem-inated to the Great Lakes Dredging Team members and all at-tendees of the annual meeting that was held June 2015. Input to the draft Guide was provided by three states (New York, Illi-nois, and Minnesota), three port authorities (Erie Pennsylvania, Toledo Ohio, and Duluth Minnesota), the Lake Carriers Associa-tion, and local Corps of Engineers offices (Buffalo, Detroit, Chi-

With passage of separate House and Senate bills, Congress is expected to complete work on a Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) during its lame duck session following the election. The House passed its WRDA bill, H.R. 5303, in late September by a 399-25 vote following Senate approval of its bill, S. 2848, earlier that month by a 95-3 vote. As these votes show, there is strong sup-port for completing a final WRDA bill before Congress adjourns. A conference committee is expected to resolve differences between the two bills. The following is a summary of Great Lakes provisions in the two bills.

cago, and Great Lakes and Rivers Division). The co-chairs of the GLDT committees (technical, outreach, legislative, and steering committees) discussed the comments. The feedback received was incorporated into the document as much as possible in completing this Guide. We hope that you find the Guide useful in promoting beneficial use of dredged sediments in your local projects. This Guide is designed to help states, port authorities, local governments, and local stakeholders develop beneficial use options by providing them with a background on dredged material management in the Great Lakes and an overview of the applicable federal and state regulations and policies. The Guide may be downloaded from the GLDT website: http://greatlakesdredging.net/news/guide-policies-projects-bu-dm.

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Waterfront Community Revitalization and Resiliency Act: The Senate bill authorizes this program, sponsored by Sen. Tammy Baldwin, that creates a voluntary Resilient Waterfront Community designation, authorizes funding for resilient waterfront plans, establishes a Resilient Water-front Communities network, and provides preferred status for Resilient Waterfront Communities in other U.S. federal grant and loan programs.

Great Lakes Algal Bloom Coordinator: Both bills direct U.S. EPA to appoint a coordinator for efforts to address harmful algal blooms in the Great Lakes.

Aid to Flint and Water Infrastructure: Both bills autho-rize funding for Flint, Mich.; the Senate bill has additional water infrastructure provisions.

Maintenance Dredging Data: The House bill directs the Corps to establish a publicly available database of main-tenance dredging carried out by federal and nonfederal vessels. The information included in the database shall include the volume of dredged material removed, the total cost of the project, the party and vessel carrying out the work, the number of private contractor bids received, and the initial cost estimate for each project.

Study of St. Lawrence Seaway: The Senate bill requires GAO to conduct a study of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Great Lakes Restoration Initiative: Both bills formally authorize the GLRI, the House incorporating Rep. Joyce’s GLRI bill and the Senate incorporating Sen. Kirk’s bill.

Great Lakes Fish & Wildlife Restoration Act: The Senate bill reauthorizes this program.

Great Lakes Fishery and Ecosystem Restoration Program: The House bill removes the authorized funding ceiling for this Corps program.

On September 21st representatives from the Toledo- Lucas County Port Authority, Port Cleveland, Hull & Associ-ates, Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) participated in a panel discussion at the 12th Annual Great Lakes Restoration Conference hosted by the Healing our Waters- Great Lakes Co-alition at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. The Coalition con-sists of more than 140 environmental, conservation, outdoor recreation organizations, zoos, aquariums and museums rep-resenting millions of people, whose common goal is to restore and protect the Great Lakes. The well attended discussion ti-tled “Sustainable Solutions for the Cuyahoga River and Tole-do Harbor’s Dredged Material” was one of several concurrent break-out sessions held in the morning of the second day of the conference.

The session, moderated by OEPA Northwest Ohio District Chief, Shannon Nabors began by emphasizing the importance of Ohio’s eight commercial maritime ports to the economy. Ohio ports move 40 million tons of cargo and generate $24.7 billion in business revenue annually. To keep Ohio’s ports open for business, the US Army Corps of Engineers dredges 1.5 million tons of sediment per year. Managing the material

Sustainable Solutions for the Cuyahoga River and Toledo Harbor’s Dredged MaterialBy Joe Cappel, Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority

after it is dredged continue to be a challenge in Ohio but the panelists presented a variety of projects and initiatives that focus on beneficially using the material rather than treating it as a waste product.

In Toledo, 40,000 cubic yards of material that would nor-mally be deposited in the open waters of Lake Erie were in-stead placed into a new facility called the Great Lakes Dredged Material Center of Innovation. The Center of Innovation is de-signed to dewater material and provide an area where soil blending and agricultural uses can be tested and advanced.

In Cleveland, two new sluiceways have been constructed to dewater, capture and separate coarse materials for commer-cial use. In addition, a bed load collector has been installed in the Cuyahoga River to remove sand which prevents the materi-al from finding its way into the Port’s navigation channels.

The panel fielded questions from the audience and also discussed other creative uses for dredged material such as us-ing the material to create wetlands and wildlife habitat. All the panelists stressed the importance of establishing partner-ships and coordinating efforts between all stakeholders with a special emphasis on developing new markets, holistic plan-ning and creating projects with multiple benefits.

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The University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Pub-lic Affairs recently handed out a much heralded State Gov-ernment Innovation Award to the Minnesota Pollution Con-trol Agency’s (MPCA) St. Louis River aquatic habitat restora-tion project.

According to MPCA’s Duluth Watershed Division Manag-er Suzanne Hanson, “The 21st Avenue West restoration pilot project represents a creative approach to using federal and state funds and authorities to restore aquatic habitat in the St. Louis River Area of Concern. In this case annual harbor main-tenance dredging is providing material needed to restore criti-cal aquatic habitat – a true win-win scenario.” She added that this project is part of the larger effort to clean up and restore multiple sites in the St. Louis River Area of Concern - on the St. Louis River estuary and in the Duluth-Superior harbor.

“The partnership approach represents a cost-effective method that balances time, materials, money, and scientific outcomes to improve an area impacted by historical altera-tion and pollution,” said project manager Dan Breneman as he accepted the award, “This approach not only satisfies the unique requirements of the St. Louis River Remedial Action Plan restoration goals, but also meets the needs of the ship-ping industry and the community.”

A total of ten awards were granted to state agencies for

St. Louis River 21st Avenue West Aquatic Habitat Restoration Project Recognized for InnovationBy Nelson French, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

creative and innovative work and projects. The awards—or-ganized in partnership with the Bush Foundation—recognize agencies that deliver better government services to Minne-sotans through creativity, collaboration, and efficiency. Addi-tional information on the 2016 award winners can be found at http://sgia.umn.edu/sgia-award-winning-projects-2016.

The St. Louis River Area of Concern is one of 43 contam-inated Great Lakes areas des-ignated under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement in 1987. In 2013 the MPCA and Wisconsin DNR adopted an aggressive and timely action plan to clean up and restore the area from historic lega-cy impacts. The 21st Avenue West aquatic habitat resto-ration project is one of sev-eral aquatic habitat restora-tion efforts underway under this plan. Additional actions will include cleanup of histor-ic contaminated sediment at sites within the Duluth-Supe-rior Harbor area.

MPCA’s Dan Breneman (left) accepts the State Government Innovation Award from Jay Kiedrowski, Senior Fellow for Leadership Management at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

USACE contractor Marine Tech hydraulically places navigational dredged material to design specs within the 21st Avenue West Interstate Flats area using a dredged material discharge platform.

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Lake Carriers’ AssociationPriorities for Lake Carriers’ members are: 1) ensure the Great Lakes Navigation System (GLNS) is allocated a full 10 per-

cent of the annual disbursement from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund so we can gradually restore GLNS to autho-rized depths and minimize financial or logistical impacts to industries reliant on maritime trade; 2) keep the St. Marys River uni-formly dredged to its authorized 27 feet depth below low water datum and explore the feasibility of deepening to 29 feet. One study (Martin, July 2015) indicated that if low water or lack of dredging reduces the controlling depth of the St. Marys River to 25 feet the resulting cost penalty would be nearly $1 billion over 50 years to the U.S.-flag fleet while the 29 feet depth could result in a savings of over $650 million in that same period; and 3) address the 17 million cubic yards of dredging backlog in the Lakes. Contact: Thomas Rayburn, Rayburn@lcaships.com

IllinoisDredging and disposal of dredged material in Lake Michigan is regulated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Illinois De-

partment of Natural Resources/Office of Water Resources (IDNR/OWR) and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA). For all projects in and along Lake Michigan the IDNR/OWR and the IEPA issue a joint permit. Maintenance dredging and open water disposal permits have a 10-year life span. IEPA approval of testing results are required prior to each year’s dredging. No dredging permits, in Lake Michigan, have been issued in 2016. Contact: Jim Casey, james.casey@illinois.gov

Minnesota21st Ave West: This 350-acre aquatic habitat restoration project is well on its way to completion. Beneficial use of more than

700,000 cubic yards of dredge material will result in improved aquatic vegetation and benthic community. 40th Avenue West: Engi-neering design is nearing completion and a state EAW will be released for public review in November. Beneficial use of 372,000 cu-bic yards at this 317 acre aquatic habitat restoration site will result in improved aquatic vegetation and benthic community. Con-taminated Sediment Clean Up: The Minnesota State Legislature is expected to consider $25.41 million request for State bond funds to leverage $45.19 million of GLLA funds to clean up 10 AOC Remedial Action Plan contaminated sediment sites. Construction at these sites is scheduled to be completed by 2020. US Steel Superfund Site: The USEPA. working with US Steel, MPA and other inter-ested parties, recently proposed a combination of dredging, capping and on-site disposal to clean up contaminated sediment in the aquatic portion of the superfund site. A Great Lakes Legacy Act partnership agreement will be used to complete the sediment cleanup. Contact: Dan Breneman, Dan.Breneman@state.mn.us and Jim Sharrow, jsharrow@duluthport.com

OhioOhio has a new initiative to improve Lake Erie that will reduce excess in-water nutrients, improve habitats and beneficially use

dredged material. Ohio is identifying potentially restorable, functional wetlands that use landscape conservation design princi-ples to maximize coastal habitat, water retention, sediment trapping and nutrient reduction benefits. Several projects in each of Ohio’s eight commercial ports have been identified to potentially use dredged material to create in-water wetlands. One project area is Sandusky Bay. An extensive state, local, nonprofit and university partnership is examining potential areas and will devel-op engineering plans for wetland restoration in as many as 12 sites in the 18-mile long by 4-mile wide Sandusky Bay. Dredged ma-terial from the 6-mile long Sandusky Harbor Shipping Channel will be used to build wetlands that have eroded over the past 200 years. The partnership will explore using both natural features and human made structures to create wetlands at points deemed critical for water filtration. It integrates components of Ohio’s Western Lake Erie Basin Collaborative Implementation Plan to reduce nutrients by 40 percent by 2025, and Ohio’s Lake Erie Protection and Restoration Plan 2016 Strategy to reduce nutrients, restore riparian and coastal wetland habitat, and develop beneficial uses of dredged material and eliminate open-lake disposal by 2020. Contact: Scudder Mackey, scudder.mackey@dnr.state.oh.us

Member Updates

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he Great Lakes Dredging Team is a partnership of federal and state agencies created to ensure that the dredging of U.S. harbors and channels throughout the Great Lakes, connecting channels and tributaries is conducted

in a timely and cost effective manner while meeting environmental protection, restoration, and enhancement goals. It serves as a forum for both governmental and nongovernmental Great Lakes dredging interests to discuss the region’s dredging needs. In collaboration with its partners, it supports timely, cost-effective and environmentally sustainable dredging practices at U.S. harbors and channels throughout the Great Lakes, connecting channels and tributaries. For more information, please visit our website: http://greatlakesdredging.net

What is the Great Lakes Dredging Team?

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