Behavior of Capped Contaminated Sediments

The Boston Harbor Navigation Improvement Project (BHNIP) entails deepening portions of Boston’s Inner Harbor, with disposal of the contaminated sediments in cells constructed in-channel and capped with 3 feet of clean sand. Motivated by this project, and other similar projects proposed nationally, we will begin studying basic physical, chemical and biological processes that take place when contaminated sediments are capped by coarser sediments. The goal is to provide a better scientific basis for assessing the technical and environmental risks of capping in relation to other disposal / isolation methods.