Beneficial Use of Dredge Materials for Soil Reconstruction and Development of Dredge Screening Protocols.

Upland placement of dredge sediments has the potential to provide beneficial reuse of suitable sediments for agricultural uses or urban soil reconstruction. However, the use of many dredge materials is limited by contaminants, and most established screening protocols focus on limiting major contaminants such as heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and generally ignore fundamental agronomic parameters. Since 2001, we have placed over 450,000 m of Potomac River fresh water dredge materials and 250,000 m of saline materials from various locations into monitored confined upland facilities in Charles City, VA, and documented their conversion to agricultural uses.