USA: Corps Awards Contract for Routine Testing of Dredged Material

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District, awarded a small business contract to Anamar Environmental Consulting Inc. in the amount of about $260,000 for environmental services to include collection and analyses of water and sediment samples from the federally-maintained Corpus Christi Ship Channel and off-shore dredge material disposal site.

Routine testing allows staff to analyze and evaluate shoal material to determine whether unacceptable impacts would result from dredging operations prior to maintenance of the channel.

“The Corps routinely conducts physical and chemical analysis on dredging projects throughout the Galveston District in order to characterize the shoal material to be excavated during routine maintenance dredging,” said Lisa Finn, an environmental project manager with the USACE Galveston Navigation Branch. “Through sampling analysis, we are able to review data to make certain we remain in compliance with multiple federal regulations, including the Clean Water Act.”

The USACE Galveston District employs an environmental management framework to provide structure and accountability within its business processes to help enhance and expand the positive impacts of its mission, while reducing, mitigating or eliminating potential negative impacts.

“This contract involves special Tier III testing for bioassays, which requires the Corps to test animals such as clams that live in the sediment for a period of time,” said Finn. “We then check the animals for toxicity and bioaccumulation in their tissue.”

According to Finn, the Corps performs bioassay testing every five years for off-shore disposal sites per agreements with federal partners including the Environmental Protection Agency.

Work is expected to begin in May 2014.

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Press Release, April 24, 2014