1.7 References

emissions from dredged material in CDFs are not regulated under the Clean Air

Act (CAA), since the CAA regulates point and mobile sources. CDFs are neither.

In most cases, air quality is regulated under the CAA only for gaseous emissions

that could be sampled from a waste stream, not for volatilization from an areal

source. Air quality from areal sources is more typically regulated, considering the

resulting quality at a point of compliance or at the nearest receptor. Moreover,

there have been no documented CAA concerns with any CDF anywhere in the

nation. However, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) air

quality standards apply when workers are exposed to inhalation or dermal contact

with vapors while handling and managing dredged material containing certain

volatile organic compounds in CDFs. In the UTM, when volatile emissions are of

concern, evaluations are performed and predicted emission concentrations are

compared to OSHA standards to determine compliance.

Plant and Animal Uptake. The direct uptake or bioaccumulation of

contaminants by wetland and terrestrial plants and animals is not directly

governed by any specific regulations. The plant and animal uptake pathways for

CDFs receiving dredged material are unique in that dredged material is not

sewage sludge, solid waste, or an industrial byproduct. Essentially, dredged

material placed in a CDF is a wet soil, usually from an adjacent waterway,

possibly containing a mixture of low levels of contaminants from various

anthropogenic sources. As explained in the RCRA discussion, none of the current

statutory or regulatory regimes used for land application of sludges or industrial

waste products are appropriate for CDF disposal of dredged material. However,

the general mandate under NEPA requires evaluations of the uptake pathways,

since uptake and subsequent movement of contaminants into food webs may

result in impacts outside the CDF. In the UTM, the potential uptake of

contaminants into plant and animal tissue is compared to that for a reference

material representative of soils in the vicinity of the CDF had no dredged material

disposal ever occurred there, and if the dredged material uptake exceeds that for

the reference, the potential environmental impact of the uptake pathways is

evaluated in the context of a risk assessment.

1.7 References

Engler, R. M., Wright, T. D., Lee, C. R., and Dillon, T. M. (1988). "Corps of

Engineers' procedures and policies on dredging and dredged material disposal

(the Federal Standard)," EEDP-04-8. U.S. Army Engineer Waterways

Experiment Station (USAEWES), Vicksburg, MS.

Environmental Protection Agency/U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. (1991).

"Evaluation of dredged material proposed for ocean disposal Testing

manual," EPA 503/8-91/001, Office of Water, Washington, DC.

__________. (1998). "Evaluation of dredged material proposed for discharge in

waters of the U.S. Testing manual," EPA-823-B-98-004, Office of Water,

Washington, DC.

1-12

Chapter 1

Introduction