As syracuse.com reports, the dredger Marlin has arrived on the shores of Onondaga Lake and will soon be taking huge gulps of the lake’s heavily polluted bottom.
This arrival marks the beginning of the final and biggest phase of the massive Onondaga Lake cleanup project by Honeywell International Inc.
For the next four years, three hydraulic dredges will suck a total of 2 million cubic yards of contaminated muck, enough to fill about 625 Olympic-sized swimming pools, from the lake bottom. The muck will be pumped four miles away through a double-walled pipe into heavy-duty plastic tubes off Airport Road in Camillus, land once used by Allied as a landfill.
At 40 feet wide and 104 feet long, Marlin is the biggest of the three dredges being supplied by Sevenson Environmental Services Inc. and will do most of the heavy lifting. Built in Louisiana by Dredge Supply Co. specifically for the Onondaga Lake cleanup, it is so big that the company had to ship it in pieces on 11 flat-bed trucks this week.
The two smaller hydraulic dredges will arrive at the lake next month and will be used in areas where Marlin cannot fit, such as some of the shallower areas of the lake.
[mappress]
Dredging Today Staff, April 23, 2012; Image: onondagalake