Comprehensive Sediment
Management Services
M9BR0003
About AECOM
AECOM is a global provider of professional technical and management support services to a broad range of markets, including transportation, facilities, environmental, energy, water and government. With approximately 45,000 employees around the world, AECOM is a leader in all of the key markets that it serves. AECOM provides a blend of global reach, local knowledge, innovation and technical excellence in delivering solutions that create, enhance and sustain the world’s built, natural and social environments. A Fortune 500 company, AECOM serves clients in approximately 125 countries and has annual revenue in excess of $7.0 billion.
More information on AECOM and its services can be found at www.aecom.com.
AECOM Environment 250 Apollo Drive Chelmsford, MA 01824 TEL +1 978.905.2100 FAX +1 978.905.2101 www.aecom.com
AECOM’s integrated
approach—risk-based
sediment assessment
coupled with innovative
design and engineering
solutions—delivers
sustainable and
cost-effective results
AECOM has been an industry leader
in the evaluation of sustainable and
green remediation metrics on
complex sediment sites
The AECOM sediment team provides extensive project experience and technical capabilities for conducting complex programs on contaminated sediment sites. With our truly global footprint, broad technical expertise, and well-established Health and Safety program, AECOM is a single source for integrated sediment management services. AECOM offers expertise in virtually all aspects of
contaminated sediment and dredged material management. We apply our services on a wide variety of development, cleanup, and restoration projects, including some of the nation’s most complex sediment management problems. Our expertise includes sediment site assessment under multiple regulatory programs, strategic superfund and CERCLA consulting, dredging and dredged material disposal programs, restoration of water bodies and watersheds, shoreline and site development, green remediation analyses, coastal engineering, natural resource damage assessment support, risk analysis, remedial design, and implementing complex remediation projects.
Our sediment and waterway restoration project teams are known for establishing strong long-term working relationships with a wide range of public and private sector clients. Our customers include industry and PRP groups, as well as state and federal governmental entities and port authorities. Many of our projects involve helping to set strategies for site management and risk-based closure. We provide expert leadership in establishing sediment clean-up levels, cost forecasting, liability management, public relations, and ultimately helping our clients reach sustainable solutions on complex sediment sites.
Our service highlights include:
- Extensive sediment remediation and waterways design and implementation experience
- Experienced RI/FS program management
- Exceptional multi-disciplinary technical capabilities - Creative and effective PRP advocacy
- Keen understanding of regulatory and technical obstacles in sediment risk management
- Cost effective contaminated sediment solutions
AECOM has successfully
completed numerous coastal
and inland waterway projects
in urban and rural settings
Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability
Environmental stewardship and sustainability is an important component of good corporate citizenship. AECOM approaches environmental stewardship at the convergence of cultural, business and scientific interests to conserve and enhance the natural environment. In addition to developingsustainable, economical and respected environmental stewardship programs for client’s operations, customers and employees, AECOM actively supports international and regional resource management and restoration organizations, including The Nature Conservancy.
AECOM was a leader in the founding of the Coastal America Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership (CWRP), a public-private coalition focused on protecting, enhancing, and restoring wetlands and other aquatic habitats. AECOM continues active involvement in both the CWRP National Advisory Council and state CWRP chapters and activities on the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts, and has a growing list of restoration and watershed project awards to share with its client partners.
Sustainability and Green Remediation.
Green and Sustainable Remediation (GSR) involves the integration of sustainable principles, practices and metrics into all phases of a remediation project, from initial
investigation through site closure. AECOM has been an industry leader in applying GSR principles at complex sediment management sites—we recently led the nation’s first major urban river Feasibility Study with a detailed GSR analysis.
Under many regulatory programs, green remediation
concepts are increasingly being considered during all stages an RI/FS program with the goal of improving the sustainability of the cleanup. This is intended for minimizing energy use and emissions, maximizing reuse/recycling of materials, and preserving, enhancing, or creating habitat. EPA expects
sustainability concepts to be incorporated into a preferred remedy, with electric dredges, biofuels, and more onsite treatment for example, being considered to reduce the carbon footprint of remediation activities. AECOM believes that these quantifiable metrics should also be included in the detailed and comparative analysis of alternatives, highlighting the impacts of large-scale dredging operations to the
environment during the remedy selection process.
Natural Resources Damage Assessment
Developing an understanding of complex ecosystems, the services these ecosystems provide, and the injuries caused by acute or chronic events often takes years of strategic data collection and analysis, as well as superior communication skills. AECOM specializes in conducting rigorous scientific and engineering studies to provide an accurate
representation of injuries to resources and services. We have expertise in all facets of the NRDA process.
- Strategic NRD planning and assessment of time-sensitive data regarding releases and their potential impact on ecological resources
- Economic and scientific studies to assess injuries to natural resources and the loss of services
- Use of economic ecology methods such as Habitat Equivalency Analysis to value natural resources and scale restoration alternatives
- Development of restoration plans to outline approaches to speed the recovery of injured resources and compensate for their loss or impairment from the time of injury to recover
- Implementation of a wide variety of ecological restoration activities, include replanting wetlands, creation of submerged aquatic vegetation beds, improving fishing access, and restoring streams
AECOM has worked on highly
visible sediment projects in North
and South America, Europe,
Australia and Asia
Representative Projects
Lower Passaic River Remedial Investigation, New Jersey Pearl Harbor Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study, Hawaii Lower Duwamish River Feasibility Study, Washington
Corps of Engineers Disposal Area Monitoring System (DAMOS), New England Hudson River Habitat Restoration, New York
Manufactured Gas Plant Bioavailability Assessments, USA Lower Fox River Water Treatment System Design, Wisconsin Grand Calumet River PCB Remediation, Indiana
Elizabeth River Restoration, Virginia
Sydney Tar Ponds In Situ Sediment Stabilization, Nova Scotia, Canada Kai Tak Airport/Hong Kong Feasibility Study, China
Shenzhen River Feasibility Study, Hong Kong, China Marathon Bay Thin Layer Cap Design, Ontario, Canada Barangaroo MGP Investigation, Sydney, Australia
Natural Resources/Waterway Restoration
Our experts understand the ecological and public benefits of restoring degraded ecosystems and contaminated sites, the regulatory driving forces that require restoration, and the advantages of applying restoration during project design for proposed construction, dredging and other projects—to support a net positive environmental effect. AECOM is deeply invested in local and national environmental restoration programs such as the Corporate Wetland Restoration Partnership and Coastal America.
- Restoration analysis and design in inland and coastal environments
- Water resources assessment and mitigation design
- Ecological studies, including evaluations of fish and wildlife species and habitats of special concern
- Risk-of-remedy evaluations to help understand the complexities of balancing relative risks in sensitive ecological systems
- Creation of restoration wetlands
- Stream and riverbank engineering, geomorphic assessment, and restoration strategies - Wetlands, fisheries, and wildlife evaluations - Habitat restoration and enhancement - Performance monitoring
Permitting and Compliance
Successful sediment management requires knowledge of numerous federal and state environmental laws and
regulations. AECOM’s regulatory and technical staff maintain in-depth understanding of these rules and have
comprehensive experience with permitting and regulatory compliance requirements.
- Superfund and RCRA Expertise
- Clean Water Act Section 304 (water quality standards), Section 401 (water quality certification) and Section 404 (dredge and fill)
- Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act
- Essential Fish Habitat Provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries and Conservation Act
- Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act
- Endangered Species Act: Section 7 Biological Assessments - NEPA and related state laws
- Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuary Act
Site Investigation
- Site characterization - Conceptual site models- Data management & visualization - Sediment stability
- Contaminant fate & transport modeling
Risk Management Strategies
- Practical cleanup & end-pointstrategies
- Bioavailability & toxicity assessments - Integrated restoration & reuse
strategies
- Human health & ecological risk assessments
- Source control & watershed management
- Risk communication: community & stakeholder involvement
Remedial Design & Engineering
- Monitored natural recovery- In situ capping
- In situ treatment: biological, chemical, physical
- Ex situ: dredging, excavation - Institutional controls - Combined approaches
Dredged Material Management
- Chemical, toxicology, biologicalassessment
- Dredged material disposal monitoring - Disposal area recovery monitoring
Ecosystem Services
- Freshwater and coastal wetland restoration
- Fish passage and dam removal - NRDA consulting
Project Implementation
- Project management - Construction management - Cost control- Health & safety management - Long-term monitoring
AECOM Services
Safety is a core
value at AECOM.
We have completed
more than 100,000
hours of sediment
field work without
incident.
Sediment Remediation and Restoration
Contaminated sediment sites often involve large volumes of material that require remediation. These large volumes, coupled with the difficulties of working in aquatic
environments, can result in high cleanup costs. Our engineers and scientists use adaptive management techniques and risk-based approaches to develop cost effective remedies. Our goal on projects is to achieve an environmentally
protective, permanent cleanup for the lowest possible cost. - Comprehensive data analysis, development of cleanup
goals, feasibility and alternatives analyses, sustainability analyses, remediation design, and construction
- Monitored Natural Recovery/Enhanced Monitored Natural Recovery
- Capping Solutions
- Dredging and dredged material management - De-watering
- Self-implementation of coastal and inland sediment management efforts
- Successful contractor management and construction oversight
- Monitoring during remediation (long term monitoring of sites) to assess sediment contaminant levels and ecological community recovery
- Restoration of habitat areas impacted by sediment contamination or remediation
Maintenance Dredging
Maintenance dredging projects require a wide range of expertise to meet permitting and regulatory compliance requirements. We have considerable expertise in all aspects of dredging and dredged material management:
- Sampling and characterization of sediments using the USACE/EPA “Green Book” and similar guidance documents - Assessment and design of dredging and dredged material
disposal alternatives including beneficial re-use, open ocean disposal, upland disposal, and use of confined aquatic disposal (CAD) cells and confined disposal facilities (CDFs)
- Oversight and monitoring during dredging programs
- Leading-Edge, Innovative Approaches
- Practical End-Point Strategies &
Cleanup Goals
- Integrated Revitalization & Reuse
Strategies
- Strong Stakeholder Relations and
Communication Skills
- Proven Design, Engineering &
Implementation Experience
Sediment Characterization & Assessment
With the majority of the world’s populations located within 50 miles of coastal environments, human activities have led to sediment quality impairment on a global scale. The complexity of assessing contaminated sediment sites requires diverse technical expertise. Our staff includes senior consulting chemists and biological scientists, as well as sediment engineers and toxicologists with specialized sediment management capabilities. AECOM provides complete sediment sampling, fish, testing, and benthic monitoring capabilities.
- Sampling and analysis plans, quality assurance project plan
- Data validation, and complex chemical data interpretation - Sediment sampling using grab samplers, coring, and in situ
sampling techniques
- Navigation using high-precision positioning systems and integration software
- Industry-leading on-water health and safety training - Macroinvertebrate analyses of marine and freshwater
invertebrates
- Toxicity testing and bioaccumulation studies with sediments and pore water
- State-of-the-art GIS and data management systems - Specialized dredging and dredged material disposal studies
using innovative technology—ADCP acoustic backscatter measurements to characterize suspended sediment plumes
Sediment Contaminant Fate & Transport Modeling
Developing an understanding of sediment mobility and the fate and transport of contaminants is often necessary to characterize contaminant source loadings and exposure potentials for risk assessment, and evaluate various remedial scenarios and management options. We specialize in state-of-the-art fate and transport modeling studies designed to evaluate the movement, behavior, and concentration of sediments and contaminants.- Sediment transport dynamics assessment including contaminant mobility and bioavailability. Evaluation of bedded sediments stability
- Development of models to help understand complex relationships between sediment contaminants such as mercury, PCBs, and dioxins and fish, wildlife, and humans - Surface water, porewater, outfall, and seep sampling to
evaluate lateral recontamination potential
- Resuspension and redeposition prediction of sediment and contaminants during dredging activities
- Remediation scenario evaluation, including no-action, monitored natural recovery, enhanced natural recovery, capping, stabilization, and hotspot removal
- Ecosystem assessment including population dynamics, food web toxics bioaccumulation, and effects on biota - Technical software expertise from analytical models to
state-of-the-art three-dimensional numerical models
Risk Assessment
AECOM is a leader in using risk-based decision-making to guide the assessment and management of sediment under a variety of programs. Our risk assessors routinely interpret the results of chemical analyses, toxicity testing, fish tissue burden data, community surveys, and modeling to assess risks and guide sediment management decisions. We are experienced conducting screening level and multi-media baseline risk assessments.
- Ecological and human health risk analyses focusing on virtually all major sediment contaminants including: mercury, PCBs, dioxins, PAHs, metals, pesticides, explosive and energetic constituents, VOCs, and SVOCs
- Realistic remedial goals that consider site-specific background conditions and realistic exposure scenarios - Urban river assessments that integrate anthropogenic
background evaluations with realistic urban river exposure assumptions
- Creel angler surveys to understand site-specific exposures in the nation’s most visible urban waterbodies
- Site-specific bioavailability and toxicity analyses with inorganic and organic contaminants
- Modeling contaminant uptake from media to organism (i.e., bioaccumulation) as well as transfers up the food chain (i.e., biomagnification)
- Sediment triad analyses to assess risks based on weight-of-evidence evaluation of sediment chemistry and bioavailability, toxicity, and benthic community data
Sediment Bioavailability Assessments
We believe that understanding site-specific bioavailability is often one of the most critical and overlooked components in contaminated sediment risk assessment. Although direct measurements of bioavailability are often not included in the site closure process, considerable evidence suggests that many contaminants are less available than suggested by extrapolating effects based on total soil or sediment concentration measurements.
- AECOM has played a leadership role in an industry-led consortium to accurately assess the bioavailability of PAHs in sediments to benthic organisms. Our research has resulted in the creation of several new scientific methods, including an EPA SW-846 method and an ASTM International standard.
- Evaluation of metals and hydrophobic organics (PCBs, pesticides, dioxin) bioavailability
- Theoretical (modeling) methods and field sampling to evaluate pore water concentrations
