Open water disposal of muddy sediments in the estuarine environment is practiced to minimize dredging costs and to preserve contained disposal site capacity. Open water sites are usually either dispersive or retentive. Dispersive sites are used in the expectation that disposed sediments will not remain there, but will be transported out of the site, leaving room for additional disposal. Retentive sites are designed to ensure that disposed sediments mostly remain within the site. Choice of one of these approaches depends on the site character, sediment character, and disposal quantities. Design of disposal management plans for both site types is accomplished by use of field observations, laboratory tests, and numerical modeling. Three disposal site studies illustrate the methods used. At the Alcatraz site in San Francisco Bay, a dispersive condition is maintained by use of constraints on dredged mud characteristics that were developed from laboratory tests on erosion rates and from numerical modeling of the dump process. Field experiments were designed to evaluate the management procedure. In Corpus Christi Bay a numerical model was used to determine how much disposed sediment returns to the navigation channel, and to devise a location for disposal that will minimize that return. In Puget Sound a model has been used to ensure that most of the disposed material remains in the site. New techniques, including a piped disposal through 60 m of water, were investigated.