A laboratory study was made of the amenability of contaminated dredged material to various treatment procedures; the test results support the observation that many conventional wastewater treatment techniques are inapplicable and/or impractical prior to open-water disposal. Three alternative systems have demonstrated potential for the treatment of dredged material. In-line aeration provides a means of satisfying the immediate oxygen demand, thus reducing or eliminating the adverse effect of depletion of dissolved oxygen in the receiving water body. Treatment by confinement of dredged material in diked areas takes advantage of natural sedimentation processes to separate solid and liquid fractions. A system of vacuum filtration, though experimental, offers the advantages of a more rapid means of fraction separation and a smaller containment area than the confined area used for natural sedimentation treatment. An evaluation of 18 physical and chemical parameters commonly used as indices of the pollution potential of dredged material shows that bulk analysis methods do not provide an adequate assessment of the environmental effects of dredged material disposal.