Conceptual Studies of Barren Island for Potential Beneficial Use and Habitat Restoration

Chesapeake Bay, Maryland

The placement of dredge materials within the Chesapeake Bay is a continuous and challenging problem for the Maryland Port Authority (MPA) because current placement sites are quickly reaching capacity.  In response to this problem, MPA is considering a number of sites within the bay to serve as placement sites, but with the added intent of beneficial reuse and habitat restoration. The first step in consideration of a site is the conceptual study.  To that end, Weston Solutions, Inc. (WESTON^®) was engaged through Maryland Environmental Services, under contract to MPA, to perform a conceptual level study of one potential site, Barren Island, located in the northern portion of Chesapeake Bay. WESTON was chosen due to our involvement in other beneficial reuse studies in the bay area.

Barren Island is home to a large wildlife population, and habitat restoration, along with sediment placement, must be accomplished in a manner that will not destroy this habitat but instead enhance the locale.  WESTON performed the conceptual studies for this potential placement site in six stages.  Stage One was the documentation of existing environmental conditions by reconnaissance site visits and literature research; such searches include water and sediment quality studies; biological, recreational, historical and cultural resource studies; navigation; and the impacts to each should the island be chosen to accept beneficial reuse of sediment.  Stage Two was the Geotechnical Literature Search and Boring Plan; Stage Three was the Geotechnical Field Work; Stage Four was the Preliminary Coastal Engineering Analysis; Stage Five was the Hydrodynamic Modeling Study; and Stage Six was the Dredge Engineering and Cost Analysis.

A Consolidated Conceptual Study Report was prepared incorporating the results from each of these tasks and a decision regarding the future use of this island will be made using the data provided to our client.