AHOY MUDPUPPY II: EPA Research Vessel Here Last Week to Check Dredging
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Mudpuppy II, EPA research vessel that operated in the Saginaw River last week.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Research Vessel Mudpuppy II paid a rare call on the Saginaw River last week, looking for contamination "hotspots."
It's part of a massive federal program to return previously contaminated waters to swimming and fishing after decades of industrial and municipal waste dumping fouled the streams and made fish less safe to eat.
MyBayCity.com reported recently that research by federal and state agencies shows that dredging of the river has resulted in "cleaner" fish. The dredging has removed thousands of cubic yards of contaminated sediment and deposited it in confined disposal facilities (CDFs), one located off the mouth of the river and the other between Frankenlust and Kochville townships.
Another dredging project is now underway in the river by Luedtke Engineering of Frankfort, Michigan, under a $1.7 million federal contract.
According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Luedtke will dredge a total of 203,470 cubic yards from two portions of the river. This includes 153,470 cubic yards of material to be dredged between the Independence Bridge in northern Bay City and the mouth of the river about three miles away.
The contractor will deposit the dredged material in the Saginaw Bay Confined Disposal Facility, CDF, located two miles out in the bay. The firm will dredge an additional 50,000 cubic yards of material upstream in eastern Saginaw County, to be deposited in the Upper Saginaw River Dredged Material Disposal Facility, DMDF, which straddles the Bay-Saginaw county line. The dredging is slated to begin in early May and wrap up by late June.
The Mudpuppy II, research vessel of the Environmental Protection Agency in the Great Lakes, operated here last week to check results of dredging now going on.
Boatnerd.com noted the vessel's brief call in the Saginaw River and the EPA, in its website, reported on a sediment washing project that has been conducted here at the Combined Disposal Facility (CDF) off the mouth of the river.
The link between contaminated sediments and water quality provides the basis for the sediment program.
The Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 declare as a national goal that all waters of the United States be made clean enough for fishing and swimming.
The Clean Water Act of 1977 seeks to secure "water quality which provides for the protection and propagation of fish, shellfish, and wildlife, and provides for recreation in and out of the water."
The 1978 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement has specific relevance to the mission. The purpose of the Agreement is to "restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the waters of the Great Lakes basin ecosystem." This charges the USEPA with the responsibility to ensure protection and restoration of Great Lakes habitats.
The R/V Mudpuppy is a 32-foot flat-bottom boat specifically designed for sediment sampling in shallow rivers and harbors. It is equipped with a vibro-coring unit that allows the sampling of cores up to 15 feet long in water depth between 2 and 50 feet.
The vessel is equipped with a differentially corrected global positioning system (GPS) with submeter accuracy that allows for precise and accurate determinations of sample locations.
The sediment washing experiment was conducted in an effort to determine if there is a way to avoid having to deposit all dredged material in the CDF. No conclusion was reported by the EPA regarding the local situation.
"Sediment washing was demonstrated at the Saginaw Bay CDF on approximately 400 cubic yards of sediment dredged from the Saginaw River," the EPA states.
"In this demonstration project, samples collected at more than 20 different points in the treatment process were analyzed to see if the particles were effectively separated by size, and if the contaminants indeed remained with the silts and clays.
"The sediment washing process was very effective in separating clean sands from contaminated silts and clays, and produced a sand fraction, representing about 75 percent of the mass of the feed material, that could be considered for beneficial reuse (e.g., beach nourishment) instead of requiring confined disposal."
The estimated cost of applying this technology to sediments with the same physical characteristics and contaminant concentrations as Saginaw River is between $39 and $224 per cubic yard of sediment (depending on the volume of material treated).
The R/V Mudpuppy has been used to perform sediment assessments at 27 Great Lakes sites. The bulk of this work has been conducted to collect information on the physical, chemical, and biological nature of sediments, allowing the three-dimensional mapping of these project sites. Typically, projects use a two-phased sediment assessment approach. The first phase includes a comprehensive sampling of the entire AoC (area of concern) to help pinpoint the location of "hot spots." These "hot spots" are then delineated in the second phase to provide information necessary for making remedial decisions. The overall goal of this effort is to generate the information needed to make scientifically defensible remediation decisions.
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