What Kinds of Wastes are Being Legally Dumped into Mid-Atlantic Coastal Waters and Where is This Being Done?
National Information
- Ocean Dumping and Dredged Material Management
- Guidance Document for Development of Site Management Plans for Ocean Dredged Material Disposal Sites (PDF) (15 pp, 44K, About PDF)
- Marine Debris
- Dredging and Dredged Material Management on the Great Lakes
- Deep-Sea Biodiversity and the Impacts of Ocean Dumping - NOAA
Dredged Material
- View a video (5:17) of the Craney Island, Va. expansion being done by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Virginia Port Authority using dredged material
The Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972 (summary or full text ) prohibits the dumping of material into the ocean that would unreasonably degrade or endanger human health or the marine environment. In 1988, the Act was amended to also ban the ocean dumping of industrial waste and sewage sludge. Today, virtually all ocean dumping is dredged material (sediments removed from the bottom of water bodies in order to maintain navigation channels and berthing areas) or waste from fish processing operations. Ocean dumping requires a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, with EPA's approval. EPA's oceans team assesses the impact of the dumping by taking water and bottom sediment samples.
There are four permitted coastal dumping operations in EPA's mid-Atlantic region.
- Lake Erie
- Waste description - dredged material
- Fish
Waste Dump Site, Virginia
- Location - six miles east of Hog Island
- Waste description - fish waste mainly from clam processing plants along the Eastern Shore
- Norfolk
Dump Site, Virginia
- Location - 17 miles east of Fisherman's Island
- Waste description - dredged material primarily from Navy dredging projects in the Lower Chesapeake Bay
- Site Management Plan (PDF) (12 pp, 3.3K, About PDF)
- Dam Neck
Dump Site, Virginia
- Location - three miles east of Virginia Beach
- Waste description - dredged material from the entrance channels to the ports of Norfolk and Hampton Roads
- Site Management Plan (PDF) (15 pp, 4.5K, About PDF)