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Beneficial Uses of Dredged Material

Penns Grove Disposal Area excavation
Year: 1978
Beneficial Use: Corps allowed contractor to commercially mine over 1 million cubic yards of sand from within disposal area limits.  Full-scale plant was constructed on site.  Contractor violated excavation limits, requiring corps to install multimillion-dollar slurry wall to mitigate.

Wilmington Harbor Disposal Area Flyash-Soil Cement.
Year: 1988
Beneficial Use: Fine-grained material, from within the disposal area, was blended with a lime fly ash mixture to create a stable construction berm for installation of wick drains.

Cape May Canal Disposal Area
Year: 1991
Beneficial Use: Permitted the State of New Jersey to excavate approximately 15,000 CY of sandy material for use in constructing dunes at Cape May Meadows.

Grove Neck and Goose Point Disposal Area Environmental Restorations
Year: 1993
Beneficial Use: Excavated existing disposal area to create ponds and wildlife habitat.

Wilmington Harbor South Mitigation
Year: 1992-1995
Beneficial Use: Excavated 60,000 cubic yards of granular material from Reedy Point North Disposal Area to use as fill to raise the elevation of a berm at Wilmington Harbor South disposal area.  The project created 12 acres of wetlands.

National Park Granular Material Excavation
Year: 1994
Beneficial Use: Material was sold to contractor for minimal cost via real estate agreement.  Contractor excavated approximately 20,000 cubic yards for use in the construction of an off ramp on Route 295.

Cape May Loran Tower Protection
Year: 1995
Beneficial Use: Sand dredged from the inlet, normally disposed of offshore or upland was used to fill geotubes and protect the loran tower anchors.  The anchors of the 700-foot high loran tower were being undermined by erosion.

Philadelphia International Airport Runway Extension
Year: 1997
Beneficial Use: Based on recommendations of District staff, approximately 1,900,000 cubic yards of granular material was dredged from the Delaware River channel into Ft. Mifflin disposal area.  The material was then excavated and trucked, a short distance to the site, to form the foundation for a new runway.  The project saved taxpayers over 15 million dollars.

Missipillion River Breach repair flanking protection
Year: 1998
Sand dredged from the approach channel was used to protect the seawall from flanking.  The material was then planted with beachgrass.

Sedge Island Breach Closure
Year: 1999
Beneficial Use: Sand dredged from Barnegat Inlet will be used to build a foundation and fill geotubes, protecting a sensitive environmental area from erosion.

Waste Management
Year: Multiple
Beneficial Use: An average150, 000 cy of dredged material from the Philadelphia to Trenton Navigation Project has been used as daily landfill cover and other landfill construction operations.

National Park (River Winds)
Year: 2001
Beneficial Use: 146,000 CY was of material was used to cover a contaminated area and created the base for a public golf course.

National Park
Year: 2002
Sale of Material: Approximately 30,000 CY of sand and river rock was removed by Ash Materials for use in landscaping projects.

Fort Mifflin
Year: 2003
Donation: 50,000 CY has been donated to the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) to demonstrate how dredged material can be used to reclaim abandoned mines, within the state of Pennsylvania.

Reedy Point Disposal Area
Year: 2002/2003
Sale of Material: Up to 1 million cy of material was sold to Pierson Construction, for use in various construction projects in the tri-state area.

Pea Patch Island
Year: 2002
Beneficial Use: Backfill behind the reconstructed seawall.  Approximately, 20,000 cy was placed to protect the historic Fort Delaware and related artifacts on Pea Patch Island.  The material was dredged directly form the adjacent federal Navigation channel.

Cape May Point St. Peter’s Beach Nourishment Project
Year: 2003
Beneficial Use: 4000 cy of sand was beneficially used from the USACE Cape May Canal Disposal Area to nourish the St. Peter’s Beach nourishment project in cooperation with Regional Sediment Management (RSM) principles.

Dredged Material and Recycled Glass: Blending Innovation and Engineering 
Year: 2004
The Philadelphia District retained Apex Environmental Inc (Malvern, PA) to conduct an innovative beneficial use project involving the blending of dredged material (DM) with City of Philadelphia curbside collected glass to determine the feasibility of using the blended materials for a suite of landscaping, embankment and structural fill applications in the urban environment.

Sunoco Removal for Capping
 Year: 2004
Beneficial Use: Sunoco Inc is using dredged material removed from the Fort Mifflin Disposal Area to cap drainage pits at it’s refinery.

NJDEP Removal from Cape May Canal Disposal Area for Environmental Restoration
Year: 2004
Beneficial Use: Material was removed from Cape May disposal area #3 and used to cap a waste area left by the operation of the Magnesite Plant in Cape May Point.  The existing land was barren of vegetation and the dredged material was used to promote growth.