Technical Committee Work Plan

Transcription

1 Technical Committee Work Plan Supporting efficient and responsible dredging for the Great Lakes region Overview: The focus of the Technical Committee is on actual operations involving navigation dredging and dredged material management in Great Lakes federally authorized harbors and waterways. Overarching committee priorities include: Assurance of a safe, reliable Great Lakes navigation infrastructure through maintenance of adequate channel depth for commercial and recreational waterway users Advancement of the technology of dredging and dredged material management in the Great Lakes and connecting channels Promotion of maximum efficiency, cost-effectiveness, sustainability and timeliness in the dredging process and in the management of dredged material Support and advancement of best environmental management practices in dredging and dredged material management to protect, restore and enhance the Great Lakes water resource and impacted near-shore and upland areas Membership: The Technical Committee is co-chaired by two Great Lakes Dredging Team (GLDT) members representing the federal and state delegations respectively. Committee membership may include other state and federal GLDT members, dredging and dredging R&D practitioners, industry stakeholders, nongovernmental organization representatives and other GLDT constituencies as appropriate. Work plan development: The work plan is based on issues and trends within the Great Lakes dredging environment. Concerns for the Technical Committee fall into major issue areas: 1) beneficial use of dredged material [with management of confined disposal facilities (CDFs) and lessons learned as subsets of beneficial use issues]; 2) environmental dredging windows. These issue areas have been a focus of the technical committee for several years. Issues that are being proposed for technical committee consideration this year: 3) mitigation for loss of open water habitat which might be due to dock construction projects or AOC delisting projects, and 4) AOC delisting and implications for dredged material management when dredging restriction beneficial use impairments are lifted. Since 29 of the AOCs include a federally maintained navigation channel, these topics seem appropriate for this group to discuss. Finally, this year, the technical committee hopes to be able to work with the larger GLDT in developing and hosting a state of the science and policy symposium to present and discuss the science and policies behind some of the issues impacting efficient and environmentally sustainable dredged material management decisions. July 2017

2 GLDT Technical Committee Work Plan Beneficial use of dredged material 1) The USACE Detroit District and Army Engineer Research and Development Center Environmental Laboratory will develop a lessons learned document regarding successful beneficial use of dredged material projects at Duluth Harbor and the St. Louis River Area of Concern. It will include a discussion of the permitting and regulatory frameworks used from both the state and federal perspectives. 1) Beneficial Use Lessons Learned 2) Conversion of CDFs to processing and reuse facilities 2) An initial phase of this work had been supported by the National Center for Freight & Infrastructure Research& Education (CFIRE) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A second phase, potentially leading to a demonstration project, is being pursued. This document is expected to be drafted before the next annual meeting. The schedule for phase 2 of this activity is dependent upon funding. Gene Clark is working on the funding issue. 3) Regional Beneficial Use Testing Manual (Environmental Evaluation and Management of Dredged Material for Beneficial Use) 4) Lessons learned paper on direct receipt of USACE dredged navigation materials 3) This guidance manual will focus on testing and evaluation protocols to determine the suitability of dredged sediments for beneficial uses, including placements consistent with Engineering with Nature. It will include a consideration of environmental programs within each of the eight Great Lake States that may affect determination of suitability for upland beneficial uses. It currently lacks recommendations for specific sampling protocols (frequency of sampling, sampling for nutrients, etc.). Additional input from the States and/or ERDC may be needed to include these items. Preparation of a paper on the direct receipt by a private contractor of dredged material for inwater placement associated with a harbor development. This is based on the pitfalls and acceptable practices learned during the Pier B project, which accepted about 40,000 cubic yards of dredged material directly from the Corps' dredging contractor. USACE could provide the requirements for the use of a contractor selected disposal site which would be useful information throughout the Lakes for similar projects. 3) The draft manual was provided for GLDT review in October 2016, and comments were received between January March USACE is working with the GLDT to address comments in a holistic manner. The goal is to complete this activity in early Paper should include the Corps requirements for any direct receipt of materials as well as common pitfalls, lessons learned. July 2017 Page 2 of 5

3 5) Potential Beneficial Use Site Database Development GLDT Technical Committee Work Plan Based on Scudder Mackay s work, developing a database, ID potential beneficial use sites throughout the coast. This kind of database would be a great tool to promote beneficial use and expand to entire coastline with other states developing potential sites for use. Just starting; anticipated to develop in scope over the next year. This project will need buy-in and commentary from the states as it develops. 6) Research on turbidity impact as it relates to windows policy Environmental dredging windows ERDC completed work on two separate efforts: a scientific research paper regarding a weight of evidence approach for effects on walleye on Lake Erie, evaluating risks to fishery resources; and a technical note to summarize research that has been conducted to-date on walleye, oysters, Atlantic sturgeon, and small mouth bass. The lessons being learned from implementing turbidity controls at Duluth Harbor will be included as part of the lessons learned document described in Activity #1. There is a desire to continue this topic. MN and WI are scoping an effort to look at science based windows for Duluth. It is recommended that the GLDT talk to the fisheries people, with a goal of developing a proposal for study. These manuscripts were published: Effects of Suspended Sediment on Early Life Stages of Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu). Burton C. Suedel, Justin L. Wilkens, and Alan J. Kennedy. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol (2017) 72: ERDC Technical Note New work: scoping additional activities/studies related to science based environmental window development. Duluth is looking at a model stakeholder process to determine windows, based on a paper by the Transportation Research Board. Jim Sharrow and Gene Clark are involved with this. July 2017 Page 3 of 5

4 7) Mitigation of open water habitat. GLDT Technical Committee Work Plan Mitigation for Loss of Open Water Habitat This will be a discussion of requirements across the Great Lakes on mitigation requirements (both federal and state) when open water habitat is lost due to development, dock reconstruction projects, or AOC delisting projects. Mitigation projects are difficult to design and approve due to absence of best practices and guidance in determining the value of habitat lost and the corresponding value of new habitat that must be created. Since the habitat creation often involves the beneficial use of dredged materials, this topic is appropriate for GLDT consideration. Note that this topic is not limited to harbors within AOCs. Questionnaires were received by Jim Sharrow (Port of Duluth). The questionnaires were reviewed. A paper will be written which summarizes the various best practices and regulations that are followed by states throughout the Great Lakes. This paper will be available to state regulators for consideration in revising their practices if needed. Jim Sharrow has responses and may do a webinar to discuss the results. 8) Dredging BUI restriction lifting discussion. Delisting Areas of Concern As AOCs are delisted, so too the dredging restriction BUI will be eliminated. What does this mean in terms of sampling and analysis requirements for dredged material, as well as assumptions about environmental suitability for the material to be used in aquatic and/or upland placements? Setting delisting criteria for BUIs is the purview of the States. USEPA has compiled information regarding the delisting process/criteria for the AOCs that have been delisted. No consensus regarding testing protocols and requirements has been obtained. 8) Beth Murphy, USEPA GLNPO has this information compiled. The topic is recommended for a webinar presentation during the next year. July 2017 Page 4 of 5

5 GLDT Technical Committee Work Plan Symposium: State of the Science and Policy Issues 9) Convene a State of the Science and Policy Issues symposium. The goal of the GLDT is to facilitate and promote timely, cost effective, and environmentally sustainable operations of U.S. harbors and channels throughout the Great Lakes. The purpose of this symposium would be to discuss the science and policies behind some of the issues impacting efficient and environmentally sustainable dredged material management decisions. Initial topics considered by the symposium planning committee include the following. These topics will be used in developing a purpose statement for the symposium, as well as associated sessions, presentations, and speakers. (a) Environmental Windows: Can we develop a windows program in the Great Lakes? If the environmental windows are reviewed in terms of dredging schedules: Are there budgetary advantages to consolidating environmental windows? Where is there latitude to dredge outside of the restrictive times? (b) The determination of the federal standard: How flexible can it really be? (c) How clean is clean? Is there any acceptable level of risk involved in dredged material placement options? What about when the dredged material has beneficial uses, is there a trade-off with the benefits? (d) Mitigation measures: What risk management measures are available for mitigating potential risks in dredged material placement options? A planning committee has been formed and has met twice. However, this activity is on hold while funding to support the symposium is being sought. The current approach is to see if this idea could be an add on to another meeting, perhaps by focusing on a more specific topic and have a smaller and shorter meeting. Suggestions include adding this meeting to an IAGLR, WEDA, AOC or other Great Lakes area event that is already in the planning stages, since the target population overlaps with these groups. Potential Webinar Topics: Mitigation for open water habitat loss Dredging BUI and removing/resolving this impairment Guest discussions from ports in other regions of the country, to expand on topics of interest to the Great Lakes. Non-Corps project presentations (clean-up/superfund projects for example) July 2017 Page 5 of 5