Traditional dredged material placement capacity in New Jersey is extremely limited. Traditionally, materials derived from dredging projects are placed in Confined Disposal Facilities (CDF). A CDF is an upland area that consists of an earthen dike in which dredged material is placed within. The NJDOT has recently inventoried and sampled the existing CDFs and has identified that these existing CDFs are reaching capacity. Without increasing capacity at these sites through the beneficial use of dredged material there is a potential for the reduction of dredging activity, which would negatively affect New Jersey's marine transportation of both recreational and commercial vessels.

Beneficial use of dredged material options must be explored to provide dredged material placement capacity. One beneficial use option for the material stored within a CDF is landfill closure. As listed in the NJDEP landfill database, over 90% of the landfills in New Jersey's Cape May, Atlantic, Burlington, Ocean, and Monmouth Counties that stopped operating prior to 1982 have not been officially closed. These sites have the potential to utilize significant amounts of dredged material in their closure plans. This research will evaluate each landfill site and the feasibility of using dredged material for final closure. As a result, this study will identify and rank the top landfill sites with the highest potential to utilize dredged material during the closure of the landfills.

The NJDOT has identified an area of interest for investigation where there are landfills requiring closure, an abundance of dredged material CDFs, a need for dredged material capacity, and sediment information on the CDFs. The area of interest includes: Cape May County, Atlantic County, Burlington County (east, Ocean County, and Monmouth County.

The objective of this research is to conduct an initial feasibility analysis study which will include the following:

• The NJDEP has a landfill database that identifies existing landfills that require closure. The current list is incomplete. The research group is to identify the landfills located in Cape May, Atlantic, Burlington, Ocean, and Monmouth Counties that require closure. Data gaps within the existing attributes will be filled in cooperation with the NJDEP and local government officials. This information will be used to rank the landfill sites and determine prioritization for further investigation.
• Each landfill site parcel will be mapped. A shapefile of the landfill parcels will be created in ArcGIS.
• With the assistance and guidance of the NJDOT and the NJDEP, a rating system will be created to evaluate landfill closure with dredged material and each site will be ranked. Priority landfill sites that have a high feasibility for closure with dredged material will be identified.
• A Phase 1 Environmental Site Investigation will be conducted of the priority sites to identify unknown potential issues or concerns.