Visitor’s Day for the Alternative Technologies Project
Fact Sheet
A Visitor’s Day for the Alternative Technologies Demonstration Program was held on October 24, 2002. The University of Minnesota- Duluth’s Natural Resources Research Institute conducted the event in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Detroit District, the Corps’ Engineering Research and Development Center at the Waterways Experiment Station, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes National Program Office, and the Duluth Seaway Port Authority.
This year the partners are evaluating Electrochemical Geo-Oxidation (ECGO) as a means to treat sediments contaminated with Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs). The technology will be demonstrated on sediments dredged from Minnesota Slip, If the technology is successful, it would be applicable at numerous sites throughout Duluth-Superior Harbor and the Great Lakes region. The ECGO process, being demonstrated by the Electro-Petroleum Institute of Wayne, Pennsylvania, has been used to treat more than 2 Million metric tons of contaminated soils and sediments in Europe and this will be the first pilot-scale demonstration of the technology in the United States. One of the reasons that the partners selected the ECGO process is that it could be used to treat sedimentsin-situ, thereby saving the cost of dredging, dredged material treatment, and dredged material disposal.
A Media Day was held on October 23, 2002 and Representative James L. Oberstar of Minnesota, as well as members of the media, had a chance to view the treatment cells and learn about the treatment process. The Alternative Technologies program, sponsored by Congressman Oberstar, tasked the Corps of Engineers to “develop and conduct full scale demonstrations of alternative methods for decontamination and disposal of contaminated dredged material at the Port of Duluth, Minnesota including technologies evaluated for the New York/New Jersey Harbor under Section 405 of the Water Resources Development Act of 1992”.
The Visitor’s Day began with a visit to the Minnesota Slip in Duluth. Dr. Judy Crane and Mr. Doug Beckwith, of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), discussed the contamination issues concerning the Slip with about 55 visitors. The MPCA has conducted extensive sampling and testing of contaminated sediment “hot spots” in the St. Louis River Area of Concern, and those results were used in the planning of the Alternative Technologies Demonstration. The Corps dredged about 750 cubic yards of sediment from the Minnesota Slip in May 2002 to evaluate under the Alternative Technologies program.
The visit to Minnesota Slip was followed by a visit to the Erie Pier Confined Disposal Facility (CDF) in Duluth, where the ECGO demonstration is being conducted. The Corps’ Duluth Area Office constructed two cells in a corner of the CDF to evaluate the treatment technology. Both cells received the contaminated dredged material but only one cell is being treated with the ECGO process. Visitors got an opportunity to see the treatment cells as well as view the equipment as well as getting an idea about air quality impacts and sound associated with the treatment.
In the afternoon, visitors had a chance to hear from the team members Mr. David Bowman, Mr. Ken Wittle, Dr. Tommy Myers and Mr. Larry Zanko about the project purpose and about sediment sampling and analytical procedures. The technology developer, Dr. Falk Doering, presented information on studies conducted in Europe, and representatives from the MPCA and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources discussed sediment quality issues within the Duluth-Superior Harbor.
Visitors Day Photos
Electrical Charges Zap Pollution (NPR story)
Great Lakes National Program Office Significant Activities Report.
