Dredging
of Paradise Complete
At the beginning of last
week’s cold snap, the company
responsible for removing excess sediment from the floor of
Paradise Pond hoisted its final piece of remaining equipment
onto a truck and off campus.
The final piece of dredging
equipment was hoisted by crane onto a tractor-trailer
bed and hauled away last week.
when the equipment was lowered into Paradise Pond. |
WeCare Organics LLC had completed its dredging project at
the end of December but was unable to remove its barge until
January.
The company removed more than 10,000 cubic yards of sediment
from the 16-acre pond.
While Smith periodically dredges the pond of the material
that threatens to fill it, this was the first time that the
process did not include draining the pond. The work was completed
through an innovative and environmentally friendly method
called hydraulic dredging that was conducted using the barge.
With the hydraulic system, the company vacuumed sediment
from the pond bottom and pumped it onto land where the water
was drained off.
The barge performed the vacuuming, and pumped the material
into special tubes located on the athletic fields that captured
and contained the sediment while releasing clean water back
into the pond. After drying out, the sediment was hauled
away on trucks.
Paradise Pond has been historically dredged every eight
years; the last time was in 1998.
|
