Clean ways to clean ports
Published 14 December 2009
Two university scientists and a Franco-British partnership have been awarded €5M (Euros) to find safe disposal methods for dredged marine sediments.
Drs Laurence Hopkinson and Kevin Stone from the School of Environment and Technology will be working with Association francaises des Ports Locaux de la Manche and with ports including Newhaven, Shoreham, Fowey, Poole, Plymouth, Falmouth, Le Havre, Cherbourg and Brest.
The funding is from the EU programme INTERREG IVA and the project, called SETARMS (Sustainable Environmental Treatment and Reuse Marine Sediments), aims to produce economic and environment solutions. It will run until 2013 and will involve seven of the university’s staff and two new researchers.
The main problem with dredged sediment is what to do with it and options depend on the level of contamination. If it is sand or gravel it can be cleaned and reused as aggregate but if the material is fine grained silts and clay then it is often deposited in landfill sites which is not environmentally friendly. It could be decontaminated but this is expensive, or it could be mixed with and locked inside cement but, again, this is costly.
SETARMS aims to determine the level and type of contamination at the ports and to develop new strategies to treat and stabilise the sediment.
Dr Stone said: "Clearly, the more material that can be treated and resused, the less that has to go to disposal and thus the environmental impact is greatly reduced."
The photograph shows the ship Sospan Dau which dredges Channel ports. It is pictured dredging a beach in shallow water off Hayling Island and discharging a spray, a process called 'rainbowing'.
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