Dredging of navigational channels is an essential function of the Corps of Engineers, supporting national security and maintaining shipping and other commercial and recreational uses of our waterways. Pursuant to its authority under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act, the Corps issues permits for the discharge of dredged material (DM) and conducts and permits the dredging of navigable waterways. In recent years, due to budget cuts and other challenges, the Corps has begun to prioritize maintenance dredging projects for deep-draft navigational channels over shallow-draft waterway projects. The resulting potential loss of use of shallow creeks by watermen and other commercial users, as well as recreational boaters, has triggered discussions about the devolution of dredging responsibility to local governments. In Virginia, for example, the legislature has authorized a regional Public Access Authority to oversee and conduct dredging projects (Va. Code §§ 15.2-6601(8), 15.2-6606(11)), and provided funding to create a pilot shallow-draft municipal dredging program to enhance recreational and commercial access to waterways.
Devolving shallow-draft dredging responsibility to the local level is an intimidating task. It will require a state-by-state analysis of needed funding and authorities, along with continued partnership with the Corps in its regulatory role. For example, states will need to determine whether and when to treat a DM storage pile as a point source, a nonpoint source, or a landfill – questions that are site- and situation-specific, and therefore resource-intensive at a time of tight environmental regulatory agency budgets.
Another significant challenge in establishing a municipal dredging program is determining what to do with the resulting DM. Not all DM is suitable for beach nourishment projects, so the remaining material must be placed somewhere; but the least expensive alternative of overboard placement on bottomland is discouraged due to natural resource impacts, and it can be prohibitively expensive to dewater, transport and dispose of DM in a landfill.
It will require a shift in mindset and adaptation of regulatory frameworks for our communities to stop thinking of DM as a waste product and proactively embrace beneficial uses of it. The Corps is already making that shift with the issuance in 2023 of the Beneficial Use of Dredged Material Command Philosophy Notice, which set the goal that at least 70 percent of DM from its projects must be beneficially used by 2030. With sufficient research, testing, and water quality protections in place, DM can be beneficially used as roadway and landscaping fill; as a soil supplement; in manufactured products, including potentially as a partial cement substitute in concrete; and in beach nourishment, living shoreline and habitat restoration projects. In Maryland, DM from dredging the access channels to the Port of Baltimore is being used to restore Poplar Island, and the State has provided grant funding for innovative research on the use of DM to make products such as shoreline stabilization structures and permeable pavers. Such a proactive approach to exploring the beneficial use of DM is a model for coastal areas facing the need to deepen their shipping channels and maintain their shallow-draft waterways.
