Beneficial use - not a new concept.
In the late 1980s the Army Corps of Engineers' through its Vicksburg Waterways Experiment Station sponsored an economic demonstration project of the beneficial uses of dredge material containment areas. One project was located along the Brownsville, Tx. Navigation District ship channel. The project examined the economic potential of using the dredge material containment ponds (DMCP) for aquaculture during the 6 years those already constructed ponds lay idle during the avg. channel dredge cycle. We grew marine shrimp in two large DMCPs totaling about 240 acres. The project lasted three+ years and the results were published and presented in the Proceedings of the National Workshop on Containment Area Aquaculture in South Padre Island, Texas 11-15 November 1991. I managed the shrimp production project, helped produce two videos on the project, and contributed to a number of publications detailing the economic, legal and technical aspects of the project results. For more information you can contact the Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, MS. and or Durwood M. Dugger, BCI, Inc. www.biocepts.com.
