Design of a GIS-based rating protocol to assess the potential for landfill closure using dredge material in post Hurricane Sandy New Jersey

ABSTRACT

New Jersey is rapidly running out of capacity for storage of dredged material. A potential solution to this lack of storage space is to remove and reuse the dredged material for some beneficial use. Results from a Rutgers University project performed for the New Jersey Department of Transportation, Office of Maritime Resources, designed to assess the potential for closure of New Jersey landfills using dredge material from existing Confined Disposal Facilities (CDFs) are presented and discussed. The project included an update of the existing NJDEP landfill database, the development of a rating system to identify landfills with the highest potential to utilize dredged material for their closure, and the identification and preliminary investigation of the top candidate landfills based on this rating system.

KEYWORDS:

• Confined disposal facilities
• coastal zone management
• dredged materials
• geographic information systems
• landfill capping materials
• New Jersey
• rating system
• spatial decision support systems

Disclaimer statement

The contents of this paper reflect the views of the authors who are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the data presented herein. The contents do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the New Jersey Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration or the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. This report does not constitute a standard, specification, or regulation.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the NJDOT Project Manager Mrs. Priscilla Ukpah, NJDOT Research customers Mrs. Genevieve Boehm-Clifton and Scott Douglas from the Office of Maritime Resources, NJDOT Bureau of Research Manager Mrs. Camille Crichton-Sumners, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), Mr. Bashar Assadi, and many undergraduates from Rutgers University who worked on this project. The majority of GIS analysis and layer preparation work was conducted by the Stockton University Coastal Research Center.

Funding

The work reported herein was supported, in part, by a grant from the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) and the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station.