Friday, September 28, 2012

Innovative dredging disposal technique recycles mud into cash

The Maryland Port Administration is reviewing a dredge disposal technique that would make a useable product out of the muck drawn from shipping channels.

Typically, dredge disposal involves piling it along the shore or using it to fill in holes that erode bay islands.

The new method takes the mud to a factory to bake it into concrete aggregate for construction. Baltimore would be the first port to use the process, created by HarborRock Holdings LLC of Glen Mills, Pa.

"We're getting ready to take the next step and it's an important step for Maryland," said port commissioner Ted Venetoulis. ""We can't keep dredging and dumping, we have to think recycling. I think it's going to be a breakthrough."

Disposing of dredging material, which accrues at a rate of several million cubic yards a year, is an ongoing conundrum for the port. "The need for dredging never goes away. What to do with dredge material is a nationwide issue and an issue in every port," said Kathy Broadwater, the MPA's deputy executive director.

HarborRock was awarded a $289,500 contract by the port administration to test its dredging disposal idea. Jeff Otto, president of HarborRock, said his factory would be located at a state-owned site where the port administration has built a dredged material containment facility.

Raw dredge would have the water taken out and baked at 2,200 degrees to destroy contaminants and create a rocklike base for concrete blocks and road construction. The aggregate could then be sold locally, Otto said.

"Even though this project is serial No. 1, the process has been used for more than 100 years with shale, slate and clay," Otto said. "The only difference is our quarry is underwater."

For more of the Baltimore Sun story: baltimoresun.com

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