New York/ New Jersey Harbor: Alternative Methods for Ex ... - CLU-IN

In 1993, a federally funded program, involving the United States Army Corps of
Engineers and the EPA was established in order to meet the goals established by WRDA.
The federal government granted $20 million to the two groups involved in order to
support the program efforts. After receiving funding, the USACE and Region 2 of the
EPA agreed to employ the U.S. Department of Energy Brookhaven National Laboratory
(BNL) to be the technical lead managing the NY/NJ Harbor project. The USACE and the
EPA developed a six-step plan to establish a full-scale sediment remediation and
beneficial use plant (EPA, vii).
The plan consisted of three main steps: a bench-scale study, pilot-scale study, and full
scale implementation of one or more decontamination technologies. Planning and
preliminary evaluations took place before each of these major steps. In the first step of
the plan, the USACE and the EPA reviewed information on and sent requests for
proposals to over 500 treatment technologies. Twenty-six firms responded and eight
completed bench-scale studies. After the EPA and USACE reviewed the results of the
bench studies, seven firms were selected to demonstrate their technologies at the pilot-
scale level: Marcor, Metcalf & Eddy, Gas Technology Institute (GTI), Westinghouse
Science and Technology, BioGenesis, International Technology, and BioSafe (Stern,
interview).
A program parallel to the federal efforts took place at the state level. In 1996, New York
and New Jersey developed the Joint Dredging Plan for the Port of New York & New
Jersey, which proposed several possible solutions to the sediment problem. The
possibilities included constructing confined disposal facilities to store the dredged
sediment and implementing alternative treatment technologies to decontaminate the
sediment. In support of the dredging plan, PANYNJ promised $130 million to the project.
The state of New Jersey pledged an additional $205 million to the project through the
Harbor Revitalization and Dredging Bond Act of 1996 (Douglas). To ensure that
sufficient man-hours would be dedicated to achieve the goals of the Joint Dredging Plan
for the Port of New York & New Jersey, Governor Christine Todd Whitman created the
New Jersey Office of Maritime Resources (NJMR).
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