Beneficial Uses of Dredged Material in Green Infrastructure and Living Architecture to Improve Resilience of Lake Erie

Abstract

To maintain the navigational depth, 1.15 million cubic meters (1.5 million cubic yards) of sediment is dredged out from the federal harbors every year from Lake Erie, Ohio Coast. Treating this huge amount of dredged material is a major challenge due to the mobilization of potential contaminants causing depreciation in water quality and depletion of valuable land. Rather than treating the dredged material as a waste, we suggest investigating alternative ways to recycle and reuse the material within Green Infrastructure (GI) and living architecture applications. This study identifies potential applications of the dredged material in bioretention and vegetative roof systems, and examines the role of dredged material in these edaphic conditions. The paper discusses the beneficial uses of dredged material in GI by investigating the quality of dredged material and performances of GI built using dredged material through laboratory and field-testing. Preliminary results of a growth media using dredged material for the vegetative roof have been developed in lab/field studies that possess the performance values comparable to the current commercial product. The growth media containing lightweight aggregate, made from the dredged material, is observed to have high water retention capacity and high unit weight in comparison to a commercial product. The growth media leachate water test demonstrated the water quality to be comparable to the drained water from the commercial product. The growth media overwintered and advanced a rare plant species, Viola pedatifida, which is similar to conventional media. The beneficial uses of dredged material in the GI will help maintain the economic viability of harbors and ports along the shoreline of Lake Erie in Ohio and GIs, which were built using dredged material that can help address storm water management issues in urban areas due to extensive impervious surfaces.

A Review of Beneficial Use and Management of Dredged Material

“…Currently, as shown in Figure 1, the most common Waste 2023, 1 practice of disposing of DM in the US is by means of dumping it into ocean waters at appropriate sites approved by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or placing it in several locations such as uplands and nearshore confined disposal facilities (CDFs) beach replenishment, sites to create wetlands, and river sandbars and islands [6]. Nevertheless, there is an outdated perception that this type of practice has an apparent weakness of not being sustainable and safe for local environments [10][11][12][13]. For instance, DM from contaminated industrial locations can have negative environmental impacts on the disposal locations and surrounding areas through the diffusion of contaminants such as heavy metals (arsenic, cadmium, mercury, etc.)…”

Measurement and Modelling of Moisture Distribution and Water Binding Energy of Dredged Sludge

“…Considerable volumes of sediments are dredged annually all over the world. Annually, over 100 million tons of sludge are dredged in China [2], against about 230 million tons in the USA [3], and 200 million tons in Western Europe [1]. Treating these huge amounts of sediments is a major challenge, and in the past, dredged sludge was dumped directly at sea in many coastal countries, which potentially deteriorated the benthic environment of the dumping sites, and consequently affected the ecosystems [4,5].…”

“…Treating these huge amounts of sediments is a major challenge, and in the past, dredged sludge was dumped directly at sea in many coastal countries, which potentially deteriorated the benthic environment of the dumping sites, and consequently affected the ecosystems [4,5]. Rather than treating it as a waste, nowadays, the sludge is also known as alternative source for raw material [2,6], beach nourishment [7], soil matrix [3] etc. Unfortunately, dredged sludge commonly contains a high water content, which significantly reduces its utility value.…”

Developmental exposure to corn grown on Lake Erie dredged material: a preliminary analysis

“…This may be especially true for corn grown on soils amended with dredged sediments that are increasingly sourced from industrial areas. For example, sediments dredged from Lake Erie shipping lanes have been proposed as a soil amendment in Ohio due to their ability to mitigate nutrient depletion as it is rich in nutrients, organic matter and has high water retention (Bhairappanavar et al, 2018). Dredged sediments have also been shown to contain COC including heavy metals, polychlorinated biphenyls, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, pharmaceuticals and other emerging COC, chemicals or toxicants that may have an impact on human health but are not yet regulated (Hull and Associates Inc, 2018).…”