LYNDHURST –
After many months of planning, it has begun.
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock of Staten Island, N.Y., started dredging a two-foot-deep section of toxin-laden mudflats along the banks of the Passaic River in Lyndhurst on the night of Friday, Aug. 2.
The long-awaited project will result in the removal of 20,000 cubic yards of river sediment containing dioxin, PCBs and mercury at River Mile 10.9, just off the shoreline at Riverside County Park near the Bocce Courts. Work is to proceed six days a week.
During evening or early morning hours, barges will transport the scooped-up soil downriver to Clean Earth, a hazardous waste treatment facility in South Kearny, for processing and the toxic residue – mixed with cement – will, in turn, be shipped out by rail to a landfill in Oklahoma. Water from the barges will be pumped into tanker trucks and sent to a waste treatment plant in New England.
After dredging is done – the job is expected to take six to eight weeks – the contractor will put down a cap of sand, a geotextile membrane, and stones.
Movement of the barges is dependent on the timed opening of 10 bridges that span the Passaic and one that crosses the Hackensack River. (For a schedule of those openings/ times released to date, please click here.)
The Lower Passaic River Study Area Cooperating Parties Group, some 70 companies that have accepted responsibility for the cleanup of industrial pollutants discharged into the river, is underwriting the project at a cost projected at $20 million.
Updated DeJessa Schedule:
8/9/13 to 8/10/13
9:00 PM
8/10/13 to 8/11/13
1:55 AM
8/11/13 to 8/12/13
10:00 PM
8/12/13 to 8/13/13
3:25 AM
8/13/13 to 8/14/13
11:10 PM
8/14/13 to 8/15/13
4:25 AM
8/16/2013
2:00 AM
– Ron Leir
