A delegation from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Buffalo District, toured the Port of Cleveland yesterday, to learn about the confined disposal facility for sediment dredged from the Cuyahoga River.
The Port Cleveland is leading efforts to beneficially use sediment dredged from the river to maintain the ship channel. Traditionally, sediment was treated as waste and disposed of in lakefront landfills.
The port has developed a sustainable program to use sediment in a variety of ways from brownfield cleanups to beach nourishment.
This initiative saves dollars that would otherwise be spent on sediment disposal, and puts a natural resource to good use in the community, the port said.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) collaborated closely with the port’s studies and confirmed that harvested bed load sediments are suitable for unrestricted upland purposes and there is minimal if any environmental impact.