Water Resources

Future Needs for Confining Contaminated Sediment in the Great Lakes Region Gao ID: RCED-92-89 July 17, 1992

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has built 26 confined disposal facilities since 1974 to hold bottom sediment dredged from harbors, channels, and other waterways in the Great Lakes area. This mud often contains contaminants, such as chemicals from industry or agricultural runoff, that require special handling. Six of the facilities are already filled to capacity, and 18 others are expected to be filled by 2006. Twelve more facilities are planned, and more sites will be needed in the foreseeable future. The Corps is now deciding whether it or state and local governments should pay the construction costs. Construction of more facilities is at a virtual standstill. Because of concerns from communities and environmental groups, finding suitable disposal sites for contaminated dredged material has been difficult and time-consuming. As a result, the Corps has deferred some dredging and commercial and recreational navigation in some areas has been harmed.

GAO found that: (1) most federally funded CDF will be filled to capacity by 2006, and funding for new, replacement, and expanded CDF is undergoing a policy and legal review; (2) pollution control efforts in the Great Lake region need improvement, since past efforts have not eliminated or cleaned up sediment contamination; (3) future sediment testing guidelines will be stricter and will increase the need for CDF; (4) economically feasible alternatives to CDF are limited and costly; (5) delays in finding acceptable sites for CDF have delayed dredging and navigation in some Great Lakes harbors and channels; (6) Army Corps of Engineers disagreement with state water quality standards has deferred and reduced dredging in the Great Lakes; and (7) increased CDF costs and site maintenance may be a long-term responsibility of local sponsors.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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