Case study of contaminated sediments in a harbour area

Catherine N. Mulligan

In the proceedings of: GEO2011: 64th Canadian Geotechnical Conference, 14th Pan-American Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, 5th Pan-American Conference on Teaching and Learning of Geotechnical Engineering

Session: Geoenvironmental Engineering

ABSTRACT: To deepen the water column near the docking area of a yacht club, the sediments need to be removed from a selected area to facilitate the passage of the larger yachts. Prior to dredging, the quality of the sediments needed to be determined. Sampling and analysis of a series of sediments in the proposed dredging area were performed. Two sets of samples were taken within the proposed dredging zone. The first set consisted of surface samples taken with a Birge Ekman sampler and the second set were core composite samples to reach sediments of approximately 46 cm in depth (the proposed dredging depth). Overall, the samples in the extreme regions will need to be handled with care due to contamination most likely from boat maintenance and from upstream industries. The sediments cannot be disposed of in open water. The region needs to be defined by further sampling. The middle region could potentially be disposed of in open water. In order for open water disposal to occur, samples would need to be subjected to toxicity tests.

RÉSUMÉ: ur facilitater le de être traités avec prudence à et donnent des résultats positifs.

Please include this code when submitting a data update: GEO2011_970

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