Location and date
USACE / ERDC / EL / DOTS / BU
Beneficial Use Categories
On 25 January 2023, LTG. Scott A. Spellmon issued a “Beneficial Use of Dredged Material Command Philosophy Notice” outlining the USACE’s goal to beneficially use at least 70% of its dredged material by the year 2030. Achieving the beneficial use (BU) goal of 70% by 2030 will require innovation and commitment as we focus on dredged material as a resource with benefits to the ecosystem, economy, and project delivery.
An 28 August 2023 DoD memorandum "Expanding Beneficial Use of Dredged Material in the USACE" was released to encourage robust innovation, planning, and categorization of dredged material for beneficial use. Additionally, this policy memorandum clarifies which dredged material placement activities shall be classified as beneficial use.
- Intentional Direct benefit (BU)
- Efficient management by temporarily or transitionally retaining sediment in the system (TP)
- No benefit; disposal (D)
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| Agriculture, Horticulture, Forestry and Aquaculture (BU) | Material placed for use by the agriculture, forestry, horticulture, and aquaculture industries. Examples: provide livestock pastures, cattle bedding, incorporating dredged material into marginal soils. |
| Aquatic Habitats (BU) | Placed to improve submerged habitats extending from near sea, river, or lake level down several feet. Examples are tidal flats, oyster beds, seagrass meadows, fishing reefs, clam flats, and freshwater aquatic plant beds. |
| Beach/Shoreline Nourishment (BU) | Beach nourishment is placement of material from a borrow area, channel, or rehandled stockpile directly onto a beach or river shoreline, in the littoral zone, nearshore, or shallow water with the intent to expand, stabilize or nourish the beach or shoreline. |
| Confined (Diked) Placement (D) | Placement of dredged material in a diked nearshore or upland Confined Disposal Facility (CDF). Upland placements not intended for a BU fall into this category. |
| Confined Aquatic Disposal (D) | Confined aquatic disposal (CAD) is the placement of contaminated dredged material into an open water placement site that is capped with uncontaminated sediment. The uncontaminated cap sediment is classified as BU under aquatic habitats. |
| Construction and Industrial/Commercial Uses (BU) | Placement activities to improve or construct harbor and port facilities, residential and urban areas, airports, dikes, levees and containment facilities, roads, and island and historic preservation areas. Material placed in a CDF and rehandled for construction activities would be classified in this category. |
| Island Habitats (BU) | Placement activities that construct, improve, or maintain islands and/or high zone wetland habitats. |
| Multipurpose Uses and Other Land Use (BU) | Combinations of uses, aquatic and/or land based. Purpose(s) does not need to be defined in DIS. Example: a park and recreational development built over an existing solid waste landfill using dredged material as a cap. |
| Open-Water Placement (TP, D, BU) | Open-water placement in riverine, lacustrine, estuarine, and marine environments with overlying volumes of water. |
| Parks and Recreation (BU) | Placement activities supporting the development of recreational areas range from simple projects such as fill for a recreation access to large and complex projects that support both public and private commercial and noncommercial recreation facilities. |
| Strip Mine Reclamation, Solid Waste Landfill, and Alternative Uses (BU) | Material, including moderately contaminated material, used for the reclamation of abandoned strip mine sites, capping or protecting solid waste landfills, or manufacturing bricks and hardened materials such as road surfaces. Material placed in a CDF and rehandled for reclamation activities would be classified in this category. |
| Upland Habitats (BU) | Material placed upland to construct or improve habitats. Upland habitat includes terrestrial communities not normally subject to inundation. |
| Wetland Habitats (BU) | Material placed to construct or nourish wetland habitats, including freshwater and saltwater marshes, relatively permanently inundated freshwater marshes, bottomland hardwoods, freshwater swamps, bogs, and freshwater riverine and lake habitats. |