Project 1:

Atlantic & Burlington County Sites

Priority

73 - Shad Island

Shad Island is the second largest of the three sites along the northern channel of the NJ Intracoastal Waterway into the Great Bay in Atlantic County.  This is the current disposal site for southern Great Bay and the NJIWW.  The berm walls rise about 20 feet above the surrounding marshes and the site is divided into one small and one large cell with a drainage gap connecting them.  The site covers 1,260,005 square feet, (28.9 acres) and is partly vegetated with Phragmities along the outer and inner perimeter wall slopes, with a largely open interior floor due to recent use.  There were three cores obtained that covered the longest axis of the site.

1. Core #1 was 45.2% sand and penetrated 6.3 feet into muddy sand and sandy mud.  The low sand percentage probably represents dredge material from Great Bay’s IWW channel. 
2. Core #2 was 59.8% sand and penetrated 6.8 feet into fine sand, then sandy mud with an 0.9-foot layer of black mud near the base of the core.
3. Core #3 was 36.7% sand and penetrated 8.3 feet into mostly sandy mud.
4. Deep soil probe obtained an 18-foot log of the site stratigraphy that was consistent with the continuous 2”-piston core samples above.  This site is predominately a 50-50 mix of mud and sand that extends downward for 15 feet to a layer of roots, leaves and mud over muddy sand that represents the pre-CDF marsh stratigraphy.  The interior deposit is approximately 15 feet thick and contains multiple layers of mud, a few sand layers, but mostly a mixture of mud and fine sand.

The sediment volume is approximately 798,000 cubic yards and could be accessed from the waterway if modifications to create a landing zone at the northwest corner of the site were completed to make a dock area so barges could be brought up to the berm and equipment off-loaded and sediment transferred to the barges for processing elsewhere or on site if proven economical to do so.