Examination of the turbidity plume generated by a sand mining hopper dredge

This paper presents the results of a study that examined predictive models for predicting dispersion and plume formation from a dredging operation; a field measurements program to collect sufficient data on an actual sand mining operation to quantitatively describe the turbidity plume, and compares predictions made by the model to the field measurements. The predictions demonstrated that the agreement between the model and the field data is acceptable until the time that the plume shape is incorrectly predicted. A further limitation of the model was its inability to handle a time-variable water current field. The data clearly shows that, for a surface discharge of overflow water, the cloud initially is dispersed throughout the water column but very quickly stabilizes into a surface layer only a few feet deep, that persists for a long time.