Past Projects
U.S. Navy Cheatham Annex
Yorktown, VA
140,000 cubic yards
In the third quarter of 2010, two seperate loads of 70,000 cy of a marine (saline) sediment from a dredge maintenance project at the Cheatham Annex (Cheatham), part of the U.S. Navy’s Yorktown Naval Weapons Station in Yorktown VA, were pumped into the Earle basin. The material was lower in salt content than the Earle NWS material, fine textured and had no contaminants at levels of concern. The material was pumped out in a very thin layer over a broad, gently-sloped area within the Earle basin and averaged <2 feet of depth with <4 feet in the lower areas of the basin.
The goal of this placement was to fill in some low wet areas in the higher Earle material and to use the thin layer approach to return to wheat production in the Earle basin.
As of early 2012, the Cheatham material has been determined to be low enough in salts and sufficiently dried to begin preparations for and production of winter wheat in late 2012. Virginia Tech studies conducted on the Earle basin sediments, groundwater and vegetative production capability continue from 2005 to this day – see related content on Research page.
The Cheatham projects was a typical pumping offloading operation, which uses a 12’’ or 14’’ hydraulic high solids pumps to move the material from the barge at the dock to the chosen placement basin cell. Another pump recirculates the water from the basin back to the pump at the dock. The system is a ‘closed loop’ recycling the water and is designed without discharge of any effluents from the placement operation. The rate of production saw barges of 2300 cy offloaded in 4-8 hours of operation.
