Eric Stern - Aqua Survey

Innovative Sediment Decontamination
Processing/Management and their
Application to Integrated Sustainable
Systems
Eric A. Stern
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Region 2 - New York USA
Mid-Atlantic Contaminated Sediments/Soils Symposium
Jersey City, New Jersey
24 March 2010
Contaminated Sediment Management
Integrated – Hybrid Approaches
M ulti com plex contam inants – Urban Environm ents
(TCDD, PAHs, Pb, Hg, Cr, TBT…..)
• Environmental Precision Dredging
– Geophysical surveys – debris fields / removal
– Mechanical, Hydraulic
• Materials Handling (most critical step - economics)
– Pumping slurries
– Dewatering (passive – geotubes): mechanical (filter presses)
– Transport / C footprint
• Capping
– Active/Reactive Core Mats – specialized caps (organoclay, TLC)
• Stabilization/Solidification (portland cement) + (oxidation)
– H202, KMNO4, NaS2O8
•
•
•
•
•
Confined Disposal Facility (upland & nearshore)
Confined Aquatic Disposal (aquatic)
Containment Islands
Landfills (significant transport – C footprint)
Mine Reclamation
 Ex-situ / In-Situ Innovative Sediment
Technologies
 Thermal
 Non-thermals
 In-Situ Stabilization (cement injection) / caps
• In-Situ Bioremediation
– Mudflats
INTEGRATE PHYSICAL
INFRASTRUCTURE IN ALL
ALTERNATIVES
• Monitored Natural Attenuation
LANDFILL CAPACITY in the U.S.
CDFs
US < than 20 years of disposal capacity
Urban / Port Impacts
• Contaminants in sediment:
– Pose an ecological and human health risk
in the river and contributes to risk harborwide;
– Contribute to contaminant loading in the
harbor (on-going sources)
• Regional Sediment Management (Watersheds)
– Impact dredged material and port
management
– Impact future waterfront development
opportunities (weak link)
Urban Rivers
Urban Rivers
Restoration
Restoration
Navigation
Maintenance
Dredging and
Deepening
Complex
Multi-Contaminant
Urban/Ports
Economic Redevelopment
Superfund
(remediation)
Restoration
Water Programs
Watershed/Basin
Management
Brownfields
Pollution
Prevention
(Stern, 2009)
Regional Sediment Management
-Solution Orientated• System-based (watershed) approach
that seeks to solve sediment-related
problems by designing solutions that
fit within the context of a regional
strategy and sediment system
Recognizes sediments as a resource
Sediment processes (coastal/estuarine)
• Integral to environmental / economic vitality
Engage Stakeholders
Achieve long-term balance and sustainable
solutions
www.hudsonriver.org
National
Regional Sediment
Management
Federal – State – City
Port Authority
Environmental –
Public
Regional Sediment
Management
(watershed)
Sediment Quality
Quantity
Dredged Material Management
Cross-Program
EU
SedNET
Urban
Contaminated Sediments
Ports and Waterways
Sediment Management
Sustainable
Sediment Management
Design / Build
(Stern, 2009)
Long – Term Implementation / Monitoring (NRC)
[Urban] Sediment Management
Sustainability (long-term)
Ecopsychology (Urban Sed. Mgmt.)
Behavioral understanding of moving forward
Open to Change
–
–
–
–
Urban – City / Port Environment
Leadership
Education (K-12) / Outreach
Different brain wiring (political) – short vs. long-term
Integrated Sediment Management
Hybrids – Holistic – Treatment Train Approaches
– Multi Contaminants / Media
Regional Sediment Management (watersheds/basins)
Beneficial Use
Un-renewable resources (economic re-development)
RSM Sediment Sustainability
Historical –
Economic Engine
Present
Gowanus Canal – Brooklyn, New York
Linkage
between
sediment
remediation /
restoration
and upland
economic
development
Future
TMDLs
CSOs
• Programs that address sediments (global)
– Sediments are cross-program
• Dredged Material (USACE Navigation)
– HTRW (USACE) (sec. 312b Env. Dredging)
• Regional Sediment Management (USACE/EPA)
• USEPA Superfund (Remediation)
• OSWER – Land Revitalization (USEPA)
– Urban Rivers Restoration Initiative (old) / Urban Waters (new)
• Water Programs
– Storm water, TMDLs, Pesticides
– National Estuary Program
•
•
•
•
•
Aquatic Brownfields (Superfund)
RCRA
Solid Waste (NYS)
Enforcement
Remediation/Clean-up – [technologies]
Use of Innovative
Technologies
Positioning for the Future
Environmental Sustainability
Environmental Manufacturing
Beneficial Use
Sediments are a resource……
Environmental Sustainability
• Long-term maintenance of ecosystem components
and functions for future generations
– Don’t mess-up big….. (prepare for mitigation)
• Making the needs of the present w/o compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
Encompasses keeping population densities below
the carrying capacity of a region, facilitating the
renewal of renewable resources, conserving and
establishing priorities for the use on non-renewable
resources, and keeping environmental impact below
the level required to allow affected systems to
recover and continue to evolve.
Apply to Sustainable Sediment
Management
Comprehensive (Integrated) approach for
addressing the long-term management /
conservation of sediments within a watershed to
maintain current (and future?) beneficial uses
while addressing regional Environmental,
Economic, and Social (and Political)
concerns (challenges…).
David Moore, Shelly Anghera, Jack Word*, Matt Wartian and Kurt Frederick –
Weston Solutions, Inc. *Newfields Northwest, LLC. – Presented at SETAC, Milwaukee 2007
(Stern)
• ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
– Psychological problem
• Human interference – social imbalance
• NIMBY – send it someplace other then where I
live
– Out of state – out of country
• Taking responsibility of our “waste”
• UN-RENEWABLE RESOURCES
Postioning for the Future
•
Life Cycle Assessment
– What is the cost associated (long-term)?
• Environmental, economic, social and political
– Of not (environmental sustainability)
• Diminishing natural resources
• Waste minimization
• Landfill Closures for most contaminated sediments
• Lack of real-estate (CADs/CDFs)
– Loss of Benthic Habitat / wetlands / channel configuration
– Long-term monitoring
– Capacity
• Short vs. long-term vision (political)
Application of Innovative
Decontamination Technologies with
Beneficial Use
• Beneficial Use
• Environmental Restoration
• Economic Revitalization
• Social Consciousness
• Behavior
–Shrinking Natural (Un-renewable)
Resources
–Short vs. Long-term vision
• Consistent with SedNet (Watershed / Basin
Management
3rd International SedNet Conference
25-26 November, 2004 – Venice, Italy
Contaminated Sediments - European River Basin
Final Recommendations
• Stimulate innovation to more efficient treatment
technologies:
– sustainability
• To date treatment technologies are too costly
• Large amounts of sediments
• Dredging and processing rates can’t keep up
• Technology itself is not the problem
• Diversity of technologies are available
New York/New Jersey Sediment Decontamination
Technologies Demonstration Program
• Program initiated in 1993 under the Water Resources
Development Act
• Partners: US EPA Region 2, Brookhaven National
Laboratory, and New Jersey (NJ) Department of
Transportation Office of Maritime Resources
• Develop and demonstrate technologies from bench-, pilot-, to
full-commercial scale
– Meet desired treatment efficiencies
– Cost-effective compared to other placement options
(S/S)
– Achieve commercial-scale capacity of 385,000 m3/yr
– Saleable beneficial use product from post-treated
material
• In 1998, NJ provided further funding to the program ($20M)
• $42 million in Federal and State resources, combined with
private investment
• What did we learn? (applies to the waste industry
in general)
• Too expensive – compared to what? (dumping?)
• Critical comments welcomed – but.. Now that
you’ve told me everything we can’t do…
• No one wants to be # 1 - #2, # 3 is OK
– Risk aversion – You haven’t built it…
• Technology companies competing – but not
understanding the sediment or waste business
• No long term contracts
– No Venture Capital
• Not too many friends in innovative
technology development– it’s lonely….
Treatment used to counter other alternatives
None or very little integration
USEPA - NJDOT Innovative Sediment
Decontamination Technology Development
1993-2009
Re-Invent – Develop the Program
outside
the box
TECHNOLOGY
Bench
Pilot
Full-scale
Commercial
BLACK BOX
Basic vs Applied Research
FRONT
END
MATERIALS
HANDLING
Proof of Concept
?
Impediment to Technology Development
POST
TREATED
BENEFICIAL
USE
The Re-invention
•
•
Treatment train (organics/inorganics)
Integrated / hybrid approaches
– Encourage treatment firms teaming agreements
•
Basic and Applied Research
– Phase 1 TIEs (specific contaminant/technology)
•
•
•
Navigational dredged material to Superfund contaminated
sediments
Siting / Regulatory Permitting / Design/Build engineering plans for
treatment processing facilities
Regional to Global Interests
– Pilot Scale – Port of Venice, Italy, Norway, Latvia, China, S. Korea..
•
•
•
•
•
Economics have caught up after 15 years as other alternative
costs are increasing
Bench-Pilot-Full/Commercial Scale Demonstrations (20)
Continue to work on innovative technologies outside the program in
all components of sediment management (treatment train)
Alternative platforms – barge mounted systems
Beneficial Use
– Economic redevelopment/revitalization
•
Multi-Media
Technologies with Beneficial
Use
 Cement-Locktm Technology*
 Commercialized by Volcano Partners LLC
– Thermo-chemical rotary kiln (cement and co-gen)
 BioGenesis Enterprises*
– Sediment washing (soils, bricks, polymer coating)
• Upcycle / BayCycle Aggregates +
– Existing Rotary Kiln (light-weight aggregate)
• Harbor Resource Environmental Group, Inc +
– Solidification/stabilization/oxidation (structural fill)
• Westinghouse/The Solena Group + *
– Plasma-arc vitrification (glass tiles / co-generation /
gasification)
* Full Scale
+ Pilot Scale
NY/NJ Harbor Sediment Decontamination Program Demonstrations : 2005-2008
Bayshore Recycling Processing Facility – Keasbey, NJ (Raritan River)
Navigational Dredged Material
Darling
International
scow storage
January 2005
250
Raritan River
3,418 yd3
2006
Arthur Kill
8,866 yd3
Geotechnical Fill
Passaic
River, NJ
2,269
Dec.
2005
300 yd3
(8,866 yd3)
dewatered
yd3
Harbor Resources
Environmental
Stabilization/OX
Superfund
Contaminated Sediments
BioGenesis
Sediment Washing
Manufactured Soil
MSU / Bridgeport Port Authority
Gas Technology
Institute/Volcano Partners
Thermo-Chem/Rotary Kiln
Construction Grade
Cement – Ecomelttm
MSU
BioGenesis Sediment Washing
BioGenesisSM Sediment Washing Technology
BioGenesis Technology Development
SOIL WASHING
USEPA SITE
SEDIMENT WASHING BENCH STUDIES
SEDIMENT WASHING
DEMONSTRATION STUDIES
WRDA Bench
Studies
Soil Washing
Demonstration
BNL 1
NJDOT
Demonstration
EPA Pilot
Demonstration
WRDA Bench
Studies
BNL 3
Environment
Canada
WRDA Bench
Studies
Harbor Sediment
WRDA Bench
Studies
BNL 2
Venice Pilot
Demonstration
South Korea
Bench Studies
BNL 4
GE-Housatonic
River
Bench Study
Kai Tak, Hong
Kong
Bench Study
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
1994
2004 - Venice
1999
Passaic River, NJ Sediment
Montclair State University Manufactured
Soil Demonstration 2008-2009
BioGenesis Sediment
Washing Process
Sand
+ Lime
New York / New Jersey Harbor
Sediment Decontamination &
Beneficial Use Demonstration Project
Cement-Lock® Technology
Sponsored By:
• Gas Research Institute
• U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency Region 2
U.S. Department of Energy
Brookhaven National Laboratory
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
(New York District)
– funding from the federal
Water Resources Development
Act (WRDA)
• New Jersey Office of Maritime
Resources
– funding from NJ Environmental
Bond Issue
Technology Developer:
Gas Technology Institute
Site Host:
International-Matex Tank
Terminal – Bayonne
General Contractor:
RPMS Consulting
Engineers
Equipment Manufacturer:
Andersen 2000 Inc.
Technology Licensor:
Cement-Lock Group, L.L.C.
IMTT
Cement-Lock® Technology
WTE
Screened/dewatered
SECONDARY
COMBUSTION
Passaic River Sediments
Stratus Petroleum
FLUE GAS
CLEAN UP
REACTIVE
MELTER
MODIFIERS
2400° - 2500°F
1316-1371C
WASTE
HEAT
BOILER
STEAM TO POWER
GENERATION
CLEAN
FLUE GAS
ECOMELT
QUENCH
ADDITIVES
Natural AIR/O2
Gas Feed
GRINDER/
PULVERIZER/
BLENDER
High Quality
CONSTRUCTIONGRADE CEMENT
Cement-Lock Demo Plant
IMTT - Bayonne, NJ
EcoMelt
Pulverized EcoMelt –
30% Replacement for
Portland Cement
Flexural Strength Test
Concrete from Ecomelt
ECH
Uncertainties in Developing
Long -Term Business Models for Technologies
(incl. capping, S/S)
• Unpredictable dredging volume estimates
– One built project
• Unpredictable dredging cycles
– Fish migratory windows
• Superfund Construction Schedules
– Remedial Investigation Process (years)
• Litigation (lawyers)
• Long-Term Contracts
• Government Risk Sharing
• Siting / Permitting
• Confidence
• Industry perception
Financing Conclusions
Lowest Price
Long Term
Commitment
Of Sediment
Greater
Financing
Largest Scale
Facility
Facts of Life
Larger
Investment
EPA Great Lakes National Program
Office (GLNPO) - Chicago
• Great Lakes CDFs are nearing capacity
– Raising structural CDF walls are a possibility
to increase volume
– Landfill placement of contaminated sediments
are expensive (>$120 m3) and space limited
– GLNPO developing cost/benefit analysis of
paying more for treatment remediation vs
CDF – landfill as being more environmentally
sustainable (LCA)
EPA R2 – GLNPO Regional Sediment Treatment Program
 Partner with GLNPO (Legacy Act)
to provide non-federal cost share
(65-35%)
 Dredge, decontaminate, recycle to
useful products instead of storing
in CDF or placement in landfill
 Process at central locations
 Combine several AOCs for
sediment volume
throughput: Regional
facilities (Lake Michigan/Erie)
 Standardized materials
handling approach
 Improved efficiencies
Sustainable reclamation
of a non-renewable
resource
Long Term Disposal
and Placement
Options
CDFs nearing
capacity
Landfills?
Long-term monitoring
LEGACY?
Renewable CDF
• Construct treatment processing
facility(s) with beneficial use
applications adjacent to CDF
• CDF renews itself by having
continuous capacity by recycling
the contaminated sediments
Direction of Ex-Situ Sediment
Treatment [ Management]
• Develop Long-term Self Sustaining
Enterprises in the Environmental
Management of Sediments
– Integrate Technologies (front and back end)
–Non-competitive
• Urban centers / waste priorities
–Regional Processing Centers
–Mainstream (combine) regional
sediment remediation / restoration
projects
• Combine timelines/critical paths
Conceptual Regional Processing
Region 2
Environmental Manufacturing
• Treatment Train Concept vs. Black Box
• Beneficial Use – Resource
– Regional Markets
• Multi-Media Processing
– Steady Stream of Material
– Sustainability
• Environmental Manufacturing
• Long-Term Self-Sustaining Enterprises
– Venture Capital
Environmental Manufacturing
• Multiple Feeds of:
– Dredged Material (Navigation)
 Contaminated Sediments (Superfund)
 Contaminated Soils
– Coal Ash (TVA lagoon breach – Jan. 09)
– Construction / Debris
 Electronic Waste
– Sewage sludge
– Medical Waste
 Tires
– Auto Fluff
 Food Waste
 Municipal Solid Waste
• Keeps system economics by supplying constant
feed of material
• Diversity of Beneficial Use Products
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
LHJ office
Weighing station
REF-facility
REF Storage
CRT-Finland Ltd
Cool-Finland Ltd
Hazardous waste
storage
Oil processing
-A department store for
Environmental Services
www.envitech.fi
Why not for beneficial use of sediments?
9. Inert waste
10 & 13. Niska & Nyyssönen Ltd
11. Landfill
12. Composting field
14. Landfill water pumping station
15. VAPO power plant
16. Envor Biotech Composting facility
17. Envor Processing paper and cardboard
recycling
18. Envor Recycling glass and plastic
recycling
19. Envor Group office and truck wash
20. Suomen Erityisjäte Ltd contaminated
soil
21. J Syrjänen Oy construction waste
22. Suomen Uusioaines Oy glass recycling
Sediments / E-Waste Model
E-waste
50%
100%
50%
30 - 40%
E-waste
Sediments
100%
Reusable
Material
Scrap Buyers
NonReusable
Landfills
Ecomelt®
Cement-Lock
Steam /
9.55mW/hr Electricity
Construction
Industry
Commercial /
Residential
Ecomelttm – Cement-Lock Technology for
contaminated sediments and multi-media wastes
Objective
> Demonstrate at the pilot scale a new technology
approach – an integrated macroalgae bio-renewable
energy production system.
> In the system, CO2 generated from a fossil-fuel-fired
power plant will be used to stimulate the production of a
high yielding seaweed biomass to be harvested and
converted to a fungible energy product, biomethane,
through the anaerobic digestion process.
> DE-FE0002640: Macroalgae for CO2 Capture and Renewable Energy – A Pilot Project
54
Macroalgae to Biofuels System
Selected Seaweed
Propagules
55
Ulva
Porphyra
Gracilaria
Sargassum
56
Sternism’s Do’s and Don'ts

Don’t believe when someone tells you If it
ain’t broken – don’t fix it.



It probably is broken and you just don’t quite yet know
how to fix it.. - stuck in the mud…
Impedes innovative technology development
Don’t discount sediment treatment as too
expensive. Technologies over a decade that
have stayed in the game have advanced
through bench/pilot/full-scale programs with
better economic data.


This has caught up (w/in magnitude) with other
alternatives
Determine Life Cycle Assessment / Environmental
Cost Benefit of paying more in the short-term as it
relates to long-term sustainable approaches
Please don’t tell me everything I
can’t do – If you’re so smart please
tell me what I can do.
It’s easy to comment. More helpful if you
get in the game and help / recommend
technical/regulatory solutions.
Don’t mortgage the future. Entertain
moving forward with sustainable longterm solutions for dredged material
and contaminated sediment
management.
 When addressing sediment management
solutions, approach it from an integrated
systems approach.
 Sediment treatment can play well with others. It
is not give me dcon or give me death.
• Renewable CDF / beneficial use regional
sediment management plan
 Sediment treatment development needs to take
into account a treatment train approach.
 When the first 3,000 yd3 scow pulls up and the
vendor say’s “wow” – this is not good sign…..
 Material handling – technology black box – post
treated beneficial use applications
 Education among Us, Technology Firms, and
Venture capitalists/Financing Firms
• Know the business
Do consider that treated
contaminated sediments can be a
resource with beneficial use
applications.
Apply state beneficial use guidelines
Manufactured soils
Construction-grade cement
Aggregates
Polymer coatings
Waste to Energy / Gasification
• Federal / State construction highway /
transportation projects

Economic stimulus
There is a change in the wind….globally
• [environmentalists] have become more
equity conscious, and through their
adoption of the sustainable growth
logic of the appropriate technology
movement, have largely cast off
changes of obstructionism
– Cicin-Sain and Knecht (1998)
• Integrated Coastal and Ocean Management
• ….need to be open to new ideas – need
to change behavior………technology
driven… Stern (2009)
FIRST GPS – GOWANUS CANAL