An Evaluation of Oil and Grease Contamination Associated with Dredged Material Containment Areas: final report

The report addresses the potential problem of contamination of receiving waters by oil and grease in return waters from dredged material containment areas. As a part of this study, field studies were conducted at six locations where dredging is practiced, and both water and sediment samples were collected at these sites. The samples were analyzed for various environmental factors with the intent of establishing whether or not the release of oil and grease from dredged sediments could be predicted on the basis of the environmental factors. The results of the field study strongly indicated that oil and grease are not released from sediments to a significant extent during the dredging process. It was found that relatively high oil levels in return waters were associated with high suspended solids concentrations, but that the various factors could not be related to the release of oil and grease from sediments. A bench-scale study was devised to delineate the significant factors affecting the release of oil and grease from dredged sediments; however, no consistent relationships were found. The bench-scale results confirmed the field study results in that oil and grease concentrations in the water phase were quite low, even with particularly oily sediments. The report also presents the following: a. An evaluation of oil and grease sampling and analytical techniques. B. A literature review of potential treatment methods for the reduction of the oil and grease contents of containment area return waters.