This document is intended to serve as a consistent "roadmap" for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency personnel in evaluating the environmental acceptability of dredged amterial management alternatives. Specifically, its major objectives are to provide: A general technical framwork for evaluating the environmental acceptability of dredged material management, alternatives (open-water disposal, confined (diked) disposal, and beneficial uses). Additional technical guidance to augment present implementation and testing manuals for addressing the environmental acceptability of available management options for the discharge of dredged material in both ope water and confined sites. Enhanced consistency and coordination in USAC/EPA decision making in accordance with Federal environmantl statutes regulating dredged material management.

This document is intended to serve as a consistent 'roadmap' for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) personnel in evaluating the environmental acceptability of dredged material management alternatives. Specifically, its major objectives are to provide: A general technical framework for evaluating the environmental acceptability of dredged material management alternatives (open-water disposal, confined (diked) disposal, and beneficial uses). Additional technical guidance to augment present implementation and testing manuals for addressing the environmental acceptability of available management options for the discharge of dredged material in both open water and confined sites. Enhanced consistency and coordination in USACE/EPA decision making in accordance with Federal environmental statutes regulating dredged material management.

This Technical Note presents a brief description of a joint U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Technical Framework for the identification of environmentally acceptable alternatives for the management of dredged material. This Technical Note replaces the earlier Technical Note EEDPA-06-14, which should be discarded. (MM).

This technical note explains the use of risk assessment to facilitate dredged material management decision-making in navigable waterways by U.S. Army Corps of Engineer (USACE) project managers and field operations personnel. The document does not promote risk assessment as a tool for use in every dredged material management decision. It is likely to be most useful, and most used, in those cases that constitute the exception rather than the rule. The use of risk assessment is intended to supplement the analytical options currently available to dredged material managers by building on the existing technical framework (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA)/USACE 1992) and the existing tiered approaches (USEPA/USACE 1991, 1998).