Ohio Dredged Material Summit Takes Place in Elyria

The 2018 Ohio Dredged Material Summit will be held at Lorain County Community College in Elyria on October 15, 2018.

The summit will discuss Ohio’s dredge strategy, sediment profiling and provide an update about Ohio’s beneficial use rules.

Highly interactive breakout sessions include:

• Dredge to Habitat – discussing benefits of dredge material to improve fish and wildlife habitat, enhance recreation and improve water quality;
• Dredge to Marketable Soil – discussing how dredge material can be essentially converted into a marketable product;
• Dredge to Farmland – discussing dredge material repurposes to enhance near-lake farmland.

Each year, harbors on Ohio’s north shore must be dredged to keep the shipping channels open so commodities can move in and out of the ports. Nearly 1.5 million tons of material are dredged annually.

Historically, much of the dredged material was dumped in the open waters of Lake Erie.

With proper characterization and handling, uncontaminated dredged material can be used for many things including beach/near shore nourishment, habitat creation or restoration, landscaping, road construction, land reclamation, landfill cover and in the manufacture of marketable products such as concrete, brick, block and topsoil.