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Newark /Port Elizabeth and the lack of adequate and affordable 

 treatment techniques, existing disposal alternatives should be 

 considered as a short-term solution. None of the existing 

 alternatives (capping, upland containment, existing borrow pits) 

 are ideally suited to resolve the current dredging issue. I 

 believe the agencies' responsible for protecting the public interest 

 should be given some latitute in the short-term to reach a 

 compromise within the regulatory framework. 



New proposals to use untested disposal or storage technology are 

 inappropriate without the necessary time to study these methods 

 properly. One proposal offered by the public interest groups is 

 in-vessel storage. This proposal suggests that specially-designed 

 barges be used to store and isolate the contaminated sediment until 

 further development of treatment technology. The history of 

 accidents from ships or barges makes me uneasy about this solution, 

 however I do not claim any special knowledge of this approach. 



Intermediate Strategy 



The intermediate strategy would be to construct specially-designed 

 undersea pits to store contaminated sediments (Class II and III 

 dredged material) as we pursue a long-range effort to treat and 

 dispose of this material. As I mentioned earlier, this approach 

 has been successfully used by other nations. When properly 

 constructed, undersea pits can provide an effective storage 

 facility for dredged material. When sediments are isolated by this 

 technique, metal constituents of the sediments may be immobilized 

 in an anaerobic environment. Consequently, some of the advantages 

 of biological processing may be realized from the placement of 

 sediments in undersea pits. Since bioremediation might be 

 occurring within pits, conceivably some research could be conducted 

 to accelerate or facilitate remediation. Obviously, the occurrence 

 of any bioremedial processes in pits must be documented. 



One concern with this technique is associated with the material 

 lost to the water column during dredging and pit deposition 

 operations. New technology is emerging to address this concern 

 such as digital dredging which aims to conduct dredging operations 

 much like the mining of ore on land) and we expect to evaluate 

 these -echniques in the near future. 



Long-Range Strategy 



As we focus initially on one or several contaminants, we must 

 deveicc a long-term strategy for the treatment and/or disposal of 

 all dredged material. Ultimately, the goal should be to dispose 

 only Class I material into the ocean. Considerable emphasis should 

 be placed on reduction of contamination at the source and to 

 pretreatments as mitigation techniques. In addition, precise 



