Contaminated Dredged Marine Sediments: Developing a Management Framework
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In conjunction with The Crown Estate and Natural England, Defra is leading a 3-year initiative to provide a management framework to address contaminated marine sediments. |
Years of historic industrialisation at the coast and within the ports of the UK have given rise to a legacy of pollution and contamination in the bottom sediments, and these pose both environmental and social risks. Increasingly these sediments need to be dredged in order to support ever increasing port developments and associated maritime trade.
The framework will provide stakeholders with guidelines for the management of contaminated marine sediments in UK waters and will:
- Promote objective, transparent assessment of all disposal options and Best Practice Environmental Option (BPEO) based on the principles of sustainable development (including the polluter pays principle and the precautionary principle) on a case by case basis.
- Act as a focus for existing work and good practice (not to duplicate work being done elsewhere e.g. The London and OSPAR Conventions, PIANC, CEDA etc.) including investigating the need to promote planning for treating and reusing contaminated dredged material.
- Define a simultaneous and inclusive consultation process rather than deciding on disposal solutions by approaching one regulator at a time, and to identify where regulations are preventing the BPEO being used and highlight examples where flexibility in regulations allows the common sense approach to prevail.
A Steering Group has been constituted to oversee the programme. The project is being co-ordinated on behalf of the sponsors and the Steering Group by Kevin Black of Partrac Ltd. The 6 Tasks, won in open competition, are being undertaken within the programme.
Page last modified: 23 July 2007