08-01 Deciding When to Intervene : Data Interpretation Tools for Making Sediment Management Decisions Beyond Source Control

The US. Army Corps of Engineers has statutory authority to regulate the disposal of dredged material in waters of the United States under the Clean Water Act and in the oceans under the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act. In carrying out this authority, the Corps has conducted over $100 million of research on dredging and the disposal of dredged material. As required by domestic law and the International London Dumping Convention, the suitability of dredged material for open-water disposal is determined by an ecological effects based approach rather than consider ation of the concentrations of chemical contaminants in the sediment. The rationale for this is that dredged material is a complex mixture of many substances whose bioavailability and potential interactions cannot be predicted merely on the basis of the concentrations of the chemicals of concern. This effects based approach uses physical, chemical, and biological assessments, and consists of contaminant mobility/bioavailability modeling; acute toxicity bioassays, which address the benthic and water column environments; and contaminant uptake bioassays, which provide information on the potential for bioaccumulation. Risk assessment procedures are available for the more difficult projects. The procedures followed by the Corps in accordance with US Environmental Protection Agency regulations have signi cant potential for the evaluation of sediment in general. However, it must be recognized that the disposal of dredged material is usually an instantaneous event (hopper, dredges, dump scows), or very short-term (hydraulic pipeline). Thus, acute, rather than chronic effects, are of primary concern. Chronic/sub lethal tests will be available in the near future. For further information on environmental effects of dredging, please see Environmental Effects of Dredging Program Technical Notes under Publications on the following web site: http://www.wes.armv.mil/el/ dots TESTING AND EVALUATION PROCEDURES FOR GREAT LAKES DREDGED MATERIAL EVALUATIONS DEVELOPED BY THE US. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY AND THE US. CORPS OF ENGINEERS jan Miller U.S. Corps of Engineers, North Central Division 111 North Canal Street Chicago, IL 60606 7206 (312) 353-6354 Jan.A.Miller@usace.army.mil The US. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) have devel oped a regional testing manual for evaluating potential impacts of contaminants from dredged material proposed for discharge to the Great Lakes, connecting channels, and tributaries. This manual is intended to be used as a decision making tool for dredge and ll permits issued by the Army Corps of Engineers, or States or Tribes where delegated, under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. This guidance is consistent with the technical framework developed by the Corps and EPA for evaluating the environmental effects of dredged material management alternatives (USACE/USEPA 1992). The Great Lakes Dredged Material Testing & Evaluation Manual utilizes a tiered approach for testing and evaluation, which is consistent with the national manuals developed for testing dredged material proposed for discharge in inland waters (USEPA/USACE 1998) and ocean disposal (USEPA/USACE 1990). This tiered approach is also generally consistent with the Guidelines for Project Evaluation developed by the International joint Commission (UC 1982). The objective of the tiered testing approach is to make optimal use of resources in generating the information necessary to make a contaminant determination, using an integrated chemical, physical, and biological approach. To achieve this objective, the procedures in this manual are arranged in a series of tiers with increasing levels of intensity. The initial tier uses available information that may be suf cient for completing the evaluation in some cases. Evalua tion at successive tiers requires information from tests of increasing sophistication and cost.

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