Design criteria and theoretical basis for capping contaminated marine sediments

Abstract

Contamination of rivers, waterways and harbors, directly affects their recreational and commercial uses. Contaminated sediments can exert a significant oxygen demand, support a poor diversity of benthic organisms and adversely affect local (overlying) and downstream water quality. In-situ, subaqueous capping is an attractive, non-intrusive and cost-effective method of remediating contaminated sediments. The successful design of an underwater cap requires the proper application of hydraulic (armor and filter equations), chemical (diffusive and advective/dispersive transport equations), and geotechnical (settlement and stability equations) engineering principles. Theoretical considerations for cap and armor design are presented in this paper and illustrated using an example application of a cap design for a confidential contaminated harbor site.