Emergency Dredging of a Terminal Tanker Dock Due to Impacts From

DREDGING SUMMIT & EXPO ’19 PROCEEDINGS

EMERGENCY DREDGING OF A TERMINAL TANKER DOCK DUE TO IMPACTS FROM THE RECENT BACK-TO-BACK HURRICANES IN THE NORTHEAST FLORIDA AREA Kwasi Badu-Tweneboah, Ph.D., P.E., D.GE 1, Samir Ahmed, E.I., 2 Ramil G. Mijares, Ph.D., P.E. 3 and Lesley B. Toke, P.E. 4

ABSTRACT A petroleum refined products company owns and operates storage facilities that store and distribute refined products including asphalt, aviation gasoline, distillates, gasolines, jet fuels, lube oils, and residual fuel at its Jacksonville Terminal facility in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. These products and/or materials are stored in 30 tanks located at the facility via three terminals. The tanker dock for one of the terminals consists of a ship dock-concrete T-Head with length overall (LOA) of 875 feet (ft) (267 meters (m)) and a maximum draft of 38 ft (11.6 m) Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW) on the west side of the Federal Navigation Channel (FNC) in the St. Johns River, Jacksonville. Tanker ships docking at the berth must maintain a minimum under keel clearance of 2.5 ft (0.76 m) in the FNC and 0.5 ft (0.15 m) alongside the berth. Additionally, incoming vessels with a draft greater than 36 ft (11 m) MLLW are required to start no sooner than 30 minutes after the start of flood current on the bar.

Available information indicates that the tanker dock was dredged in 2009 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District (USACE-SAJ) as part of the Jacksonville Harbor Berth Deepening and Maintenance Dredging project (USACE-SAJ 2008, 2009). The area was dredged to a maximum depth of -42 ft (-12.8m) MLLW, which included a design depth of -40 ft (-12.2m) MLLW plus 2 ft (0.6m) of allowable overdredge, in order to match the FNC. Since then no maintenance dredging had been required since annual bathymetric surveys had shown the berth maintaining the minimum required draft and under keel clearance requirements. However, results of bathymetric survey performed on 20 April 2018 indicated that sediments had accumulated on the southern end of the tanker dock. Approximately 3,500 cubic yards (2,680 cubic meters) of sediments had accumulated in a 200-ft (61-m) long by 120- ft (37-m) wide area in the southernmost tip of the tanker dock. The apparent shoaling was presumably attributed to the effects of the two back-to-back hurricanes (Matthew in 2016 and Irma in 2017) in the Northeast Florida area. The authors were tasked with providing permitting and consulting support services to allow the facility to perform a one- time emergency dredging of the tanker dock.

The support services included obtaining permit authorizations from the USACE-SAJ and Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) to perform the dredging and acquiring a license agreement with the Jacksonville Port Authority (JAXPORT) to allow disposal of the dredged materials at one of JAXPORT’s dredged material management areas (DMMAs) on the Jacksonville Harbor. These efforts included preparing and implementing a sediment sampling and analysis plan (Geosyntec 2018a) for the sediment characterization program to characterize the quality of sediments accumulating in the tanker dock and to provide information to support the permitting and approval process. Two sediment cores ranging in length from approximately 6 to 9 ft (1.8 to 2.7 m) were collected using a vibracore apparatus on 24 October 2018 (Geosyntec 2018b). Each core was divided into two equal sections with each section homogenized in the field until uniform in color and texture to generate two composite samples from each core: one from the upper half section and the other from the lower half section. Additionally, sediment samples from each sample station were collected for performing modified elutriate testing (Vicinie et al. 2011). Field methodologies and

1 Principal Engineer, Geosyntec Consultants, 1200 Riverplace Blvd., Suite 710, Jacksonville, Florida 32207, USA, 904-450-4259, Email: [email protected]. 2 Senior Staff Engineer, Geosyntec Consultants, 1200 Riverplace Blvd., Suite 710, Jacksonville, Florida 32207, USA, 904-858-1818, [email protected]. 2 Project Engineer, Geosyntec Consultants, 1200 Riverplace Blvd., Suite 710, Jacksonville, Florida 32207, USA, 904- 858-1818, [email protected]. 4 Lead HSE Specialist, Gulf Coast Region, NuStar Energy, L.P., 6531 Evergreen Ave., Jacksonville, Florida, 32208, USA, 904-450-4235, [email protected].

www.westerndredging.org 506 © Western Dredging Association procedures generally followed those outlined in USACE (2003) and procedures documented in the FDEP Standard Operating Procedures for Field Activities (DEP-SOP-001/01). The vibracore sediment and modified elutriate samples were collected from the tanker dock and shipped to environmental and geotechnical testing laboratories for analytical and geotechnical testing (Geosyntec, 2018b). The environmental (analytical) laboratory testing included the typical suite of parameters (i.e., metals and other general physical and chemical constituents in sediments) required by the regulatory agencies as well as BTEX/MTBE and other petroleum hydrocarbon compounds required by JAXPORT (2018). Geotechnical laboratory tests included particle-size analysis (ASTM D422), moisture content (ASTM D2216), and specific gravity (ASTM D854). The analytical results of sediment samples indicated no observed exceedances of the FDEP’s cleanup target levels (CTLs) for commercial/industrial direct exposure. The analytical results of modified elutriate samples indicated that the observed exceedances of CTLs for leachability based on marine surface water criteria were limited to aluminum, copper, iron, and lead (Geosyntec 2018b). The geotechnical test results indicated the sediments having 68 to 93 percent sand content, 7 to 32 percent fines content (i.e., silt- and clay-sized particles), 30 to 94 percent moisture content, and specific gravity of specific gravity of 2.675 (Geosyntec 2018b). The analytical and geotechnical tests results and evaluations are also consistent with those reported for the terminal dock by CH2M HILL (2008) as part of the 2009 Jacksonville Harbor Berth Deepening and Maintenance Dredging project (USACE-SAJ 2008, 2009).

Based on the above analytical and geotechnical results and follow-up discussions with the FDEP and JAXPORT, the sediments were evaluated to be acceptable for disposal at one of JAXPORT’s DMMAs. The results of the sediment characterization program have been used to support the permit applications to the respective agencies. A Nationwide Permit (NWP) Number 35 has been issued by the USACE-SAJ to authorize the dredging of the accumulated sediments in the tanker dock. An environmental resource permit (ERP) application was submitted to FDEP Northeast District (FDEP-NED) in January 2019 and response to request for additional information (RAI), including a submerged land lease survey, was completed in March 2019. It is anticipated that a permit would be issued by April 2019. Plans are also underway to procure a dredging contractor to perform the actual emergency (maintenance) dredging which is anticipated to be in mid-2019.

This paper presents the sediment characterization program and permitting efforts with the USACE-SAJ, FDEP, and JAXPORT to allow NuStar to perform the dredging of the tanker dock. Historical bathymetric survey and other hydrologic data will be reviewed and analyzed to establish sediment accumulation rates and to provide the apparent cause(s) of the apparent shoaling following the two hurricanes.

Keywords: Dredging, dredged material disposal, contaminated sediment.

REFERENCES CH2M HILL (2008). “Technical Memorandum, Sediment Sampling at Talleyrand Marine Terminal, Chevron, NuStar Energy, and US Navy Fuel Depot Docks”, prepared for JAXPORT, August 8, 2008, 11p.

Geosyntec (2018a). “Sampling and Analysis Plan – Tanker Dock Maintenance Dredging Operations”, NuStar Energy, L.P., Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida, Sep 2018.

Geosyntec (2018b). “Sediment Characterization Report – Tanker Dock Maintenance Dredging Operations”, NuStar Energy, L.P., Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida, Dec 2018.

JAXPORT (2018). “JAXPORT Environmental Testing and Reporting Procedure”, Exhibit D of User Dredge Agreement.

USACE (2003). “Evaluation of Dredged Material Proposed for Disposal at Island, Nearshore, or Upland Confined Disposal Facilities – Testing Manual”, ERDC/EL TR-03-1. USACE-SAJ (2008). “Plans for Construction Dredging (Phase III) 40-Foot Project Cut-50 through Lower Terminal Channel”, Jacksonville Harbor, Florida. USACE-SAJ (2009). “After Dredge Survey, Dredging Plan, Construction Dredging (Phase III) 40-Foot Project Cut- 50 through Lower Terminal Channel”, Jacksonville Harbor, Florida.

www.westerndredging.org 507 © Western Dredging Association Vicinie, A., Palermo, M., and Matko. L. (2011). “A review of the applicability of various elutriate tests and refinements of these methodologies”, Proceedings of Western Dredging Association (WEDA XXXI) Technical Conference & Texas A&M University (TAMU 42) Dredging Seminar, Nashville, Tennessee, June 5-8, pp. 29-35.

CITATION Badu-Tweneboah, K., Ahmed, S., Mijares, R.G., and Toke, L. B. (2019). “Emergency Dredging of Terminal Tanker Dock Due to Impacts from the Back-to-Back Hurricanes in the Northeast Florida Area”, Proceedings of the Western Dredging Association Dredging Summit & Expo ’19, Chicago, IL, USA, June 4-7, 2019.