Amendment To The Regulation On The Environmental Management Of Dredged Material Has Been Published

The Regulation Amending the Regulation on the Environmental Management of Dredged Material (the "Amending Regulation") was published in the Official Gazette dated 04/02/2026 and numbered 33158, amending the Regulation on the Environmental Management of Dredged Material (the "Regulation").

This information note has been prepared to summarize the practical implications of the amendments introduced by the Amending Regulation, as well as the key compliance steps, for administrations conducting or planning dredging activities, contractors, port operators, and stakeholders developing beneficial use projects. The Amending Regulation significantly strengthens, in particular, the obligation to determine hazardous characteristics, the framework for environmental management plans and academic reports in beneficial use projects and the documentation and annex requirements within the plan format.

With the Amending Regulation, the starting point of the approach for dredged material intended for beneficial use has now been explicitly established as the "determination of hazardous characteristics." Accordingly, in the characterization and suitability assessment, the hazardous properties and threshold values set out under the Waste Management Regulation shall be taken as a basis, and the number of samples shall comply with the requirements set out in Annex-1 Table 1 of the Regulation. Where analysis results exceed the threshold values, where hazardous characteristics cannot be eliminated, or where discharge into the sea or beneficial use options are unavailable or deemed unsuitable, the material shall be classified as "waste" and managed in accordance with the Waste Management Regulation. In practice, the most critical consequence of this framework is that the risk of beneficial use projects falling under the "waste regime" is now more clearly linked to specific triggers, with a direct impact on project timelines and costs.

Furthermore, with respect to material brought ashore for beneficial use purposes, the Regulation provides that the relevant processes and environmental measures shall be carried out subject to obtaining the necessary permits from the relevant institutions and organizations and provided that such processes are envisaged within an approved Environmental Management Plan. It is explicitly stated that material deemed suitable for beneficial use shall be transported in leak-proof vehicles and that the provisions of the Waste Management Regulation shall not apply to such transportation. In practice, this provision establishes a separate transportation regime for material transported under an approved beneficial use plan; however, this regime applies only if the prerequisite conditions (approved plan, required permits, leak-proof vehicles, etc.) are duly fulfilled.

Finally, under the Amending Regulation, where one of the beneficial use options listed in

Annex-1 Table 3 of the Regulation is selected, a corporate academic report prepared by the relevant departments of universities has become mandatory, provided that the use complies with the criteria set out in the applicable legislation. The report must include:

1. the selected use option,
2. whether pre-treatment is required prior to beneficial use and the related environmental measures and regulatory obligations, and
3. the characteristics of the onshore unloading and temporary storage area, together with the measures to be taken and the relevant regulatory obligations.

This amendment aims to strengthen the technical and legal defensibility of beneficial use through third-party documentation and, accordingly, creates a new critical work package in terms of file completeness and timeline management during permitting processes.

In addition, where one of the beneficial use options listed in Annex-1 Table 3 of the Regulation is selected, the corporate academic report prepared in this context, as well as the permit/approval letter to be obtained from the relevant institution or organization confirming compliance with the selected beneficial use option, must be annexed to the Dredging Environmental Management Plan. This demonstrates that beneficial use has ceased to be merely a technical "preference" and has evolved into a compliance set that must be completed through supplementary documentation and institutional confirmation within the plan file.

Moreover, the regulatory reference regarding environmental consultancy firms authorized to prepare the plan has been updated, designating the Regulation on Environmental Management Services dated 01/11/2022 as the applicable framework. This amendment is significant in that it aligns the reference with the current legislation and necessitates the revision of templates and plan texts used in practice accordingly.

Under the Amending Regulation, the phrase "With Hazard Analysis" has been added before the term "Beneficial" in the third column of Annex-1 Table 1 of the Regulation. This addition constitutes a technical harmonization amendment that clarifies, at the table level, that beneficial use assessments must be considered together with, and primarily on the basis of, hazardousness analysis results. This emphasis should be taken into account when preparing sampling and analysis plans in the field.

Amendments have also been made to the Format of the Dredging Environmental Management Plan set out in Annex-2 of the Regulation. Within the "A. General Information" section, the inclusion of documents evidencing the completion of the EIA process (EIA Positive Decision or EIA Opinion) has been deemed appropriate. This amendment indicates that EIA status has now become an explicit checkpoint among the preliminary documents of the plan file.

In parallel, the section titled "Ç. Beneficial Use Opportunities and Disposal" in Annex-2 of the Regulation has been revised and its content expanded. Under the new provision, the plan must mandatorily include, inter alia, hazardousness analysis results, sampling/drilling points and coordinates, average composition of samples, evaluation of beneficial use options, technical information/scientific studies for the selected beneficial use together with the relevant permit/approval letter, sampling records, monthly disposal quantities and disposal facility information, online waste declaration forms and transportation methods in cases of onshore unloading, as well as, where applicable, the corporate academic report. This expansion increases the need for interdisciplinary coordination (environmental, geological/geotechnical, chemical, legal/permitting) in the plan preparation process.

The Amending Regulation enters into force on the date of its publication and its provisions are executed by the Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change. Accordingly, it is advisable to promptly review ongoing or planned projects to ensure that existing plans and application files comply with the updated format and additional requirements.

Should you have any questions regarding the matter, please do not hesitate to contact us at any time.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.