ABSTRACT
Many countries have navigable waterways. Some of these are wide and stretch hundreds of km and some are narrow and relatively short. Virtually all of them require dredging from time to time and in most cases Placement of the material at sea is not an option for practical, economic or environmental reasons. In most, if not all countries that have environmental legislation, placement on land (or in inland lakes and waterways) is covered by different legislation than that of placement at sea. Placement at sea is covered by various international conventions, whereas no such conventions cover placement on land. In Europe a number of pertinent European Union Directives are binding on member states but the interpretation into national legislation can be quite different amongst Members. Similarly in Australia and in the USA, national environmental legislation provides guiding principles, but individual states can have quite different interpretations in practice. This makes it unwise to generalise and for this reason detailed information is not included.
