Posted on May 15, 2023
General Webinar Overview: The State of New Jersey boasts one of the most extensive maritime transportation systems in the country with over 600 nautical miles of engineered waterways ranging from the entrance channels to the NY/NJ Harbor to the back bays of the Atlantic coastal zone to the shipping channels of the Delaware River supporting a $50 billion maritime, fishing and coastal tourism industry. Maintaining this system requires the dredging of between 6 and 10 million cubic yards every year ranging from clean sand to contaminated silt and clay.
New Jersey has been a proponent of beneficially using dredged material since the mid-1990s and the NJDOT Office of Maritime Resources has spearheaded that effort with a comprehensive program of research, education, advocacy and implementation resulting in the successful beneficial use of millions of cubic yards of dredged material. In addition to navigation benefits, beneficial use also results in benefits to the environment in terms of improved water quality, restored ecosystems, brownfield redevelopment, and increased coastal resiliency to climate change and sea level rise. Mr. Douglas will illustrate the State’s experiences with beneficial use through case studies and program summaries and provide insight that might be useful for other states looking to implement beneficial use.
Presenter Bio: Scott Douglas is the Dredging Program Manager of the NJ Department of Transportation’s Office of Maritime Resources. He is responsible for overseeing dredging and dredged material management statewide, including maintaining the 200 nautical mile state channel network along the Atlantic and Delaware Bay coasts. Mr. Douglas has been actively involved in sediment issues in New Jersey since 1990 and was on the front lines of the dredging crisis in the NY/NJ Harbor as a key player on the team that delivered the 50-foot NY/NJ Harbor deepening. In this role, he spearheaded the effort to evaluate technologies such as sediment stabilization and decontamination used to implement the program of upland beneficial use of contaminated dredged material. Millions of cubic yards of contaminated dredged material have been successfully managed in the NY/NJ Harbor as a result of these efforts.
His primary responsibility since October of 2012 has been the recovery of New Jersey’s Marine Transportation System from the impacts of Superstorm Sandy which has resulted in a statewide effort to increase the beneficial use of clean dredged material in sensitive coastal habitats. Mr. Douglas is a member of the Regional Dredging Teams in the NY/NJ Harbor and Delaware Rivers and is spearheading the effort to establish an RDT for the NJ Back Bay region. Mr. Douglas holds a BS in Zoology and an MS in Environmental Toxicology from the University of VT, presents regularly at conferences and seminars throughout the US and abroad, and has published numerous papers, articles and manuals on contaminated sediments and dredged material management.
PDH Credit: A certificate for one (1) professional development hour will be available for all participants who attend this webinar or view the recorded webinar online.
Registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_R2LJoKD9RjKAGhH3KFdg1w
