Click
here for Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) Program Slide Show about
Sediment DecontaminationClick
here for Bio Genesis Sediment Washing in Kearny, New Jersey, as of
January 29th, 1999
The New York/New Jersey Harbor has a natural depth of 19 feet, while ships now using the Harbor require a depth of 40 to 45 feet. Due to the shallow natural depth, continual silting of the navigational channels occurs, and they must be periodically dredged to maintain safe passage for vessels. This maintenance dredging generates between 6 to 7 million cubic yards of sediment annually. Historically, the dredged material has been disposed by dumping in the ocean. However, changes to federal regulations have set new, lower standards for contaminant levels suitable for ocean disposal. Under the new rules, approximately 4 to 6 million cubic yards annually will require some form of processing or decontamination prior to disposal of the material.
The need to dispose of dredge materials has created an economic issue for the New York/New Jersey Port industry, which supports more than 200,000 jobs and contributes $20 billion each year to the regional economy. The feared impact of not finding a solution is that the shipping business currently coming into the NY/NJ Port will dwindle as new, deeper- draft ships are unable to safely navigate, and are thus forced to use deeper draft ports elsewhere.
U.S. EPA Region 2 and Army Corps of Engineers, NY District, are jointly directing a project funded by the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) to demonstrate decontamination technologies. Department of Energy - Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is managing demonstrations by seven technology vendors. BioGenesis Enterprises, Inc. is one of these firms. The WRDA project goal is to establish a production-scale facility able to treat 500,000 cubic yards of dredged material annually. In addition to successful removal or treatment of organic contaminants (including polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and organochlorides such as dioxins, furans, and PCBs) and inorganic heavy metals, the WRDA project is addressing the additional issues of materials handling and beneficial reuse of treated or decontaminated material.
BioGenesis performed optimization tests on NY/NJ Harbor sediment on February 28, 1997. The contaminated sediment supplied by BNL contained detectable levels of all contaminants of concern. Following decontamination of the material, BioGenesis sent “before and after” samples to Triangle Laboratory, where testing showed remarkably high removal efficiencies for all contaminants. The results (summarized in the chart) for both organic and inorganic contaminants prove conclusively the effectiveness of the BioGenesis™ Washing Technology as applied to an incredibly complex and difficult sediment matrix.
The next step in the WRDA project is for BioGenesis to perform a pilot project using sediment supplied by the Port Authority of NY/NJ. Equipment for the project is scheduled to arrive in Newark during May. The project will then treat up to 40,000 cubic yards of sediment.
During the pilot project, production scale equipment will be built for the expected initial phase of full-scale implementation. The WRDA project goal is to have a production-scale facility operating as soon after the closing of the Mud Dump (September 1997) as possible. BioGenesis planning is to be on-site at production scale during the fourth quarter of 1998.
Testing on New York / New Jersey Harbor Sediment
U.S. EPA, USACE-NYD, BREP under WRDA 1996 Analysis by Triangle Laboratories, Inc.
Results to Date: