We are in the preliminary stages or preparing to have our 51 year old lake dredged for the first time in 23 years. We have had the soil/silt in the lake tested by our Ag college (Clemson) and it's almost perfect in every way.

Rather than haul it to a landfill (very expensive way to get rid of it), could landscaping or plant outlets use this product?

Are there thoughts of others that could use it?

Based on my experience the stuff off the bottom can't be used for anything useful as is until it's been spread out fairly thinly over a large area and allowed to sun bake dry for an extended period. Even then it usually has to be mixed with regular dirt at that point.

Others more knowledgeable will respond as to the hows and whys.

FWIW when they dredged the 250 acre lake in central Indiana where we have property, they spread it on a nearby farmer's fields.

Most of the spoils you are bringing out will likely be very fertile, but also very high in hydrogen sulfide, which can become sulfuric acid. Does the sludge smell like sewage? Spreading it in thin layers to oxygenate the sludge, then mixing in the appropriate amounts of Hydrated and/or Ag lime to neutralize the acidity could make it useful fast.

Put an ad on the local craigslist that you have fill dirt, people are always looking for clean fill!

I have a rather large pile myself right now and have a couple people wanting a fair amount of it what I dont use or get rid of I am going to spread on a low area on the back side of my dam that is a food plot and work it in.

To rainmans point that is definitely worth checking into, the stuff removed from my pond had no odor to it at all luckily.

As others said, it is very fertile. I know 2 people who put it around new homes and it wouldn't even grow grass until it set about 2 years to leach out some of the nutrients. Occasionally I'll see where some farmer has just dozed some dirt over an old pond that had silted till it was very shallow. Usually grows the best looking crops in the field. A guy at a local restaurant told me his neighbor sold the silt out of his pond to a farmer for $12.00 a ton to use as fertilizer. Probably work if it was thinly broadcast like they do the turkey manure out of turkey farms around here.

We dig a portion of our pond bottom each year and use it to make raised gardening beds. Our soil is really just a clay that grows very little vegetation as there is next to no organic matter in it naturally. The parent material is Mancos Shale. We live in a "pigmy forest" of pinyon pines and juniper trees. Rainfall is scarce; grass and understory shrubs are rare. It's mostly bare ground with the trees as over story. Soil pH is high-greater than 8.
What has worked for us is to mix pond muck at about 50% with wood shaving bedding from the chicken house, wood chips (I have a big wood chipper), and the natural dirt from the site.
With no amendments to the soil, corn grows 8" tall! With manure and compost, corn will grow 2' tall. With the mix of pond muck as listed above, the sweet corn thrives, tomatoes are loaded with fruit, cucumbers go wild.
There is some sulfur smell to the muck, so it's fair to assume the sulfur in the muck is lowering the pH some to a more plant friendly level.
I think your spoils could be valuable to the right people-gardeners, landscapers, orchardists.
Roger

When I cleaned out my sons pond and also my daughters pond, the muck did not want to grow much of anything the first year. But after it weathers a year, it grows stuff really well.

Funny, but I also find that what pure clay that I dig up from a new pond will also not grow hardly anything the first year no matter how hard I try (short of covering with top soil). But after it weathers a year wild grass and especially weeds will start growing.

Maybe the weathering process is important to any dirt that has been deprived of above ground natures processes for a long time.