General Information
Confined Dispoal Facilities
Beneficial Use of Dredged Material
Environmental Windows

General Information

Recycling Dredged Material in the Great Lakes
Using dredged material can offset the need to mine or import sand or soil from other areas. This web site provides portals for obtaining information about sources of dredged material near you that can be used beneficially.

Decision Making Process for Dredged Material Management (pdf) This document has been developed by the Great Lakes Dredging Team in order to describe the decision making process used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to determine the appropriate method(s) for management of dredged material from federal navigation projects, to describe the key environmental laws and regulations involved in this process, and to describe the responsibilities of other federal and state resource agencies and local proponents in this decision making process. A flow chart (page 22) provides a visual overview of the decisionmaking process for dredged material management, including the agencies and legislative authorities involved.

Great Lakes Dredged Material Testing & Evaluation Manual
Developed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers in order to forecast potential impacts of contaminants from dredged material proposed for discharge to the Great Lakes,connecting channels and tributaries. This manual is intended to be used as a decision making tool for dredge and fill permits issued by the Army Corps of Engineers, or States or Tribes where delegated, under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.

Dredged Material Management in the Great Lakes, US Army Corps of Engineers Great Lakes and Ohio River Division

Confined Disposal Facilities
Confined Disposal Facilities Fact Sheet developed by the Great Lakes Dredging Team, provides an overview of CDFs in the region, their history, design and current use.

Great Lakes Dredging and Confined Disposal Facilities
This issue paper developed as part of the 1996 State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference paper on Changing Land Use provides an overview of the evolution of dredging in the Great Lakes region and describes the role of CDFs in dredged material management.

Confined Disposal Facilities on the Great Lakes, produced by the Army Corps of Engineers, provides an overview for CDFs on the Great Lakes.

Goals for Dike 14: Public Preferences for Future Uses. This report describes the public involvement process and results of an Ohio Department of Natural Resources initiative to identify local preferences for land uses and activities in the future development of the Cleveland Dike 14 site, and to recommend means by which community consensus could be reached on a concept strategy for development.

Environmental Windows
Environmental windows are time constraints place on dredging or dredged material operations to protect biological resources or their habitats from detrimental effects. Such windows can include, among other reasons, effects on resuspended sediments on fish and shellfish resources, sedimentation effects on sensitive resources and habitat, entrainment of aquatic organisms by hydraulic dredges and disruption during bird nesting times. The technical issues underlying requests for and compliance with windows are complex, as are the implications of windows for conduct of dredging in a cost effective manner. Windows complicate dredging contracts in many ways that can increase costs on a per cubic yard basis. Achieving a balance between adequate resource protection and cost effective dredging operations has been a continuous, challenge.