Perform Appropriate Testing and Assessments

Framework for Dredged Material Management

May 2004

3.5.4 Perform Appropriate Testing and Assessments

Appropriate testing and assessments may be required to determine the physical

behavior of the material at the disposal site. Also, testing and assessments for one or

more potential contaminant pathways of concern may be required.

Physical testing and assessment should focus on both the short-term and long-

term physical behavior of the material. For open-water alternatives, these assessments

might include an analysis of water-column dispersion, mound development, and long-

term mound stability or dispersion. For confined alternatives, these assessments might

include an analysis of solids retention and storage requirements during disposal and long-

term consolidation behavior in the CDF. Guidance for conducting physical testing and

assessments is described in Chapters 4, 5, and 6.

Any contaminant testing should focus on those contaminant pathways where

contaminants may be of environmental concern, and the testing should be tailored to the

available disposal site. The considerations for identifying contaminant pathways of

concern for open-water disposal and confined disposal alternatives are discussed in

Chapters 4 and 5, respectively. For open-water alternatives, contaminant problems may

be related to either the water column or benthic environment, and the appropriate testing

and assessments would include required CWA or MPRSA testing. For confined sites,

potential contaminant problems may be either water quality related (return water effluent,

surface runoff, and groundwater leachate), contaminant uptake related (plant or animal),

or air related (gaseous release).

The identification of pathways of concern should be based on the initial

evaluation of sediment contamination and on the known characteristics of disposal sites

under consideration. One of the following determinations will result for each pathway:

If the initial evaluation of sediment contamination and site characteristics

reveals that the material can be excluded from further testing or that adequate

data already exist for a given contaminant pathway, then no additional

contaminant testing for that pathway is required.

In some cases, past evaluations of sediment contamination and site

characteristics may indicate that contaminants would clearly result in

unacceptable impacts through a given pathway. In this case, a determination

can be made without further testing that management actions or control

measures will be required for that pathway.

Finally, there may not be sufficient technical information to allow for a factual

determination for one or more pathways of concern. The potential impact of

specific contaminant pathways must then be evaluated using appropriate

testing and evaluations for those pathways. Risk assessment is employed

implicitly in making a factual determination, as an integral part of

development of many sediment and water quality criteria. If conventional