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hand, opportunities to use dredged material beneficially should be employed to the 

 maximum extent possible, especially for the construction of coastal wetlands. 



There are many factors that come into play when selecting disposal sites. For ports 

 in major urban centers, upland alternatives are usually unavailable, especially if there are 

 large annual volumes being removed. Building confined sites nearshore in any location may 

 threaten wetlands, and building containment structures in estuaries threatens productive 

 shallow bay bottom (although it creates good waterfowl habitat). Open water disposal in 

 relatively nonproductive, nondispersive deepwater sites is often found to be the best 

 solution. If the material contains low levels of contamination, subaqueous "capping" is often 

 used. 



The underlying principle of dredged material management should be that aU disposal 

 options should be considered, with the decision based on environmental, as well as economic 

 and public health considerations. We must recognize that land-based alternatives are not 

 inherently better, in terms of the environment protection or practical feasibility, than open 

 water disposal. This principle has been recognized by the London Convention of 1972 which 

 is the international treaty governing the ocean disposal of dredged material. In addition, 

 the Corps and EPA recently jointly issued guidance proving a technical framework for 

 evaluating environmental effects of dredged material management alternatives. This 

 guidance recognizes the need to evaluate the environmental impacts of the full range of 

 disposal alternatives. 



Conclusion 



Mr. Chairman, the public port industry is aware that ocean disposal of sediments is 

 an emotionally charged issue. This concern is caused in part by philosophical objection to 

 the use of the ocean; and in part by concern over the impact of pollutants in sediments. By 

 working with the Corps and EPA to improve ocean disposal management practices and 

 participating in the development of long term management strategies and beneficial use 

 projects, the public port industry is attempting to build greater public confidence in the 

 program and to reduce reliance on open water disposal where feasible. 



Nonetheless, as front line parties to the dilemma posed by the widespread concern 

 regarding contaminated sediments, ports believe that ocean disposal is an important option 

 in the effort to dispose of sediments in environmentally sound ways. This is especially true 

 if we begin to examine sediments causing water quality problems in our estuaries under a 

 nationwide sediment remediation program. Removing bioavailable contaminated sediments 

 from our estuaries and disposing of them in well managed ocean disposal sites may 

 represent a "net environmental benefit" which society cannot afford to ignore. 



Sediments transported into the harbor by natural processes, where they fall out of the 

 water column, sometimes contain chemical constituents. These sediments must be dredged 

 periodically if ports are to continue to handle the transportation of our nation's cargo. As 





