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  • Corps seeks public comments on St. Paul Small Boat Harbor dredging

    ST. PAUL, Minn. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, is seeking comments on its draft Environmental Assessment, or EA, released today, Aug. 22, for the St. Paul Small Boat Harbor dredging in Ramsey County, Minnesota.

  • Corps of Engineers to begin dredging, beach nourishment in South Haven

    DETROIT- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will place South Haven harbor dredge material near-shore to nourish South Beach starting next week. Sampling results confirm the proposed outer harbor dredge material is suitable for beneficial reuse as nourishment material. About 18,000 cubic yards of material from the federal navigation channel will be placed south of the South Pier in South Haven, Michigan. “We understand the eroded area in front of the water treatment plant may seem the logical placement site, however, we do not have National Environmental Policy Act approval to place there this year,” said Elizabeth Newell Wilkinson Grand Haven Resident Engineer. “We are hard at work on the required Environmental Assessment to evaluate whether or not we will be able to place material there next year and are hopeful in the results.”

  • Swan Island: Monitoring and Adaptive Management Plan

    Abstract: Swan Island is a 10.12 ha island located in the Maryland waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Because of its value as a natural wave break for the town of Ewell on nearby Smith Island, as well as the ongoing erosion and subsidence of the island, in 2019 US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)–Baltimore District placed 45,873 m³ of dredged sediment and planted 200,000 marsh plants. This restoration provided an opportunity to quantify the engineering (that is, resilience) and ecological performance of the island, postplacement. The lack of quantitative data on the performance of natural features such as islands has led to perceived uncertainties that are often cited as barriers to implementation. To address these data gaps, a multidisciplinary collaboration of five government entities identified project objectives and monitoring parameters through a series of mediated workshops and then developed a conceptual model to articulate those parameters and the linkages between them. This monitoring and adaptive management plan (MAMP) documents those monitoring parameters and procedures and can serve as an example for other scales, regions, and research questions. Documenting research and monitoring efforts may help to foster widespread acceptance of nature-based solutions such as islands.

  • Environmental Evaluation and Management of Dredged Material for Beneficial Use: A Regional Beneficial Use Testing Manual for the Great Lakes

    Abstract: The Environmental Evaluation and Management of Dredged Material for Beneficial Use: A Regional Beneficial Use Testing Manual for the Great Lakes (a.k.a. Great Lakes Beneficial Use Testing Manual) is a resource document providing technical guidance for evaluating the suitability of dredged sediment for beneficial use in aquatic and terrestrial environments in the Great Lakes region. The procedures in this manual are based on the Environmental Laboratory extensive research, working with US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Great Lakes districts, state resource agencies, and local stakeholders seeking to develop dredged material beneficial use alternatives consistent with regional needs and goals. This manual is the first guidance document developed by USACE for evaluating the environmental suitability of dredged material specifically for beneficial use placements. It provides a tiered framework for evaluating the environmental suitability of aquatic and upland beneficial uses consistent with the Inland Testing Manual and the Upland Testing Manual. This manual is intended to serve as a regional platform to increase collaborative problem-solving and endorse a common understanding of the scientific and institutional practices for evaluating dredged material for any beneficial use. Dredged sediment may be managed as a valuable resource, with great potential to create economic, environmental, and social benefits.

  • Corps of Engineers awards contract to dredge, rehabilitate jetty at Fishing Creek

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Baltimore District, has awarded a $3.17 million contract to White Lake Dock and Dredge, Inc., a Small Business out of North Shores, Michigan, for maintenance dredging and southern jetty rehabilitation for the Fishing Creek Federal navigation channel.

  • Supporting Bank and Near-bank Stabilization and Habitat Using Dredged Sediment: Documenting Best Practices

    Abstract: In-water beneficial use of dredged sediment provides the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) the opportunity to increase beneficial use while controlling costs. Beneficial use projects in riverine environments include bank and near-bank placement, where sediments can protect against bank erosion and support habitat diversity. While bank and near-bank placement of navigation dredged sediment to support river-bank stabilization and habitat is currently practiced, documented examples are sparse. Documenting successful projects can support advancing the practice across USACE. In addition, documentation identifies data gaps required to develop engineering and ecosystem restoration guidance using navigation-dredged sediment. This report documents five USACE and international case studies that successfully applied these practices: Ephemeral Island Creation on the Upper Mississippi River; Gravel Island Creation on the Danube River; Gravel Bar Creation on the Tombigbee River; Wetland Habitat Restoration on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta; and Island and Wetland Creation on the Lower Columbia River Estuary. Increased bank and near-bank placement can have multiple benefits, including reduced dredge volumes that would otherwise increase as banks erode, improved sustainable dredged sediment management strategies, expanded ecosystem restoration opportunities, and improved flood risk management. Data collected from site monitoring can be applied to support development of USACE engineering and ecosystem restoration guidance.

  • Kemp’s ridley sea turtle lays eggs on replenished beach

    Galveston’s beaches are no strangers to visitors, especially during the summer. Each year, more that 7 million people come to vacation here. This year, however, a very special visitor made Galveston it’s preferred summer getaway destination. A Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle—the world’s rarest and most endangered sea turtle species—nested on a new beach near the corner of Seawall and 86th Street.

  • Investigation of Sources of Sediment Associated with Deposition in the Calcasieu Ship Channel

    Abstract: The Calcasieu Ship Channel (CSC) is a deep-draft federal channel located in southwest Louisiana. It is the channelized lowermost segment of the Calcasieu River, connecting Lake Charles to the Gulf of Mexico. With support from the Regional Sediment Management Program, the US Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District, requested that the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory, perform an investigation of the potential sources of sediment associated with dredging in the CSC. A previous study had quantified sediment from known sources, indicating that the known sediment sources contribute approximately only 21% of the volume that is regularly dredged from the channel. This technical report details the results of the current study, which employed multiple methods, including numerical analysis, to identify potential additional sources of sediment by first examining the available literature and the modeled energetics and flow pathways, and then estimating the quantities of sediment associated with these identified sources that may be contributing to the shoaling of the CSC. The results of these efforts were used to update the original sediment budget with estimates of the contributions from two additional sources: the erosion of interior wetlands and coastally derived sediments.

  • Using Geophysical and Erosion Properties to Identify Potential Beneficial Use Applications for Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway Sediments

    Abstract: In an effort to identify alternative and beneficial use placement strategies for dredged sediments from the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AIWW), the US Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District (SAS), and the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) performed a series of physical property tests of 34 core borings from the SAS AIWW. Physical property testing found that 14 of the borings were non-cohesive sandy materials that may be suitable for potential beach renourishment or berm construction. The remaining 20 borings had mud contents sufficient enough to result in cohesive behavior. A subset of six of these materials from across the geographic region were further evaluated to characterize their erosion behavior. Following a self-weight consolidation period of 30 days, erosion testing showed that the tested cohesive sediments had critical shear stress values that ranged from 1.7 Pa to 2.9 Pa, suggesting that these sediments would likely be resistant to erosion in most wetland environments after placement. Additionally, the cohesive sediments were found to produce gravel-sized mud clasts. These clasts could account for 20% or more of the eroded mass and significantly reduce the amount of silts and clays incorporated in suspended plumes during and immediately following placement.

  • Sediment Provenance Studies of the Calcasieu Ship Channel, Louisiana

    Abstract: To maintain the navigability of the Calcasieu Ship Channel (CSC), the US Army Corps of Engineers annually dredges millions of cubic yards of sediment from the inland channel. To assess sources of channel shoaling, a previous study examined river and bankline erosion as inputs. Results from that study accounted for approximately 20% of dredged volumes. Through the support of the Regional Sediment Management Program, a follow-up investigation reviewed prior sediment budgets, identified potential missing sediment sources, modeled potential sediment pathways, and utilized geochemical fingerprinting to discern primary shoaling sources to the channel. The missing sediment sources from the original budget include coastally derived sediment from the Gulf of Mexico and terrestrially derived sediment from Lake Calcasieu and surrounding wetlands. Results from geochemical fingerprinting of various potential sediment sources indicate the Calcasieu River and the Gulf of Mexico are primary contributors of sediment to the CSC, and sediments sourced from bankline erosion, Lake Calcasieu bed, and interior wetlands are secondary in nature. These results suggest that engineering solutions to control shoaling in the CSC should be focused on sources originating from the Gulf of Mexico and river headwaters as opposed to Lake Calcasieu, channel banklines, and surrounding wetlands