Brownfields Reuse of New York Harbor Sediments
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| New York Harbor dredged sediment in barge pier-side undergoing S/S treatment. |
Federal regulations restrict disposal into the ocean of sediments
dredged from the harbors of New York and Newark. The New York Port
Authority is faced with a critical situation: find land-based disposal/uses
for tens of millions of cubic meters of sediments or lose
standing as a commercial port for ocean-going ships. One of the technologies
now being employed to manage the sediments is portland cement-based
solidification/stabilization (S/S) treatment. Millions of cubic meters
of the sediments have undergone cement-based S/S treatment. This treatment
immobilizes heavy metals, dioxin, PCBs, and other organic contaminants
in the sediment.
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| New York Harbor dredged sediment undergoing S/S treatment while in barge. |
The treatment changed the sediment from an environmental liability into a valuable structural fill. Dredged sediment was transported by barge to a pier. There, cement was mixed into the sediment while it remained in the barge. The mixing method used an excavator-mounted mixing head. The treated material was removed from the barge and earmarked as structural fill at two properties. The first is an old municipal landfill in Port Newark, New Jersey. Treated sediment was used to cover about 8 hectares (20 acres) of the landfill.
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| Compaction of treated dredged material on top of a closed municipal landfill. |
This allowed redevelopment of the property into a shopping mall. The second property, called the Seaboard site, was the location of a coal gasification facility and later a wood preservation facility. This 65-hectare (160-acre) property has been designated for brownfields redevelopment. Over 1.1 million m3 (1.5 million cu yd) of treated sediments already covers this site.
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| Interior view of Jersey Gardens Shopping Mall built on landfill. |
This S/S treatment will use portland cement as the binding reagent added at a rate of 8% per wet weight of the dredged sediment. Additional properties owned by the land developer hold capacity for another 2.3 million m3 (3 million cu yd) of S/S treated sediment when the dredged material becomes available.
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