Heavy metal transport and dispersal by maintenance dredging - a study of the Tees

Dredging operations are carried out in a number of British estuaries and rivers. Sediments from areas of intense shipping and industrial activity tend to have higher metal concentrations than those from less active areas. There is growing concern that the disposal of contaminated dredged material at sea may have a harmful effect on the marine environment. The Department of the Environment has commissioned Hydraulics Research to study the estuarine transmission of heavy metal pollutants in an attempt to determine the extent to which they are accumulated within an estuary or passed out to sea and the factors affecting their transmission.