Posted on April 1, 2019
Nevada Irrigation District’s Combie Reservoir sediment and mercury removal project has been selected as the 2018 Small Project of the Year by the American Society of Civil Engineers, Sacramento Section, according to a release.
The aim of the NID pilot project is to remove sediment from Combie Reservoir while introducing an innovative mercury recovery process. The efforts will protect public health and benefit aquatic habitat in the Bear River watershed, while restoring water storage capacity in the reservoir.
Approximately 40,000 cubic yards of sediment were removed from the dry Combie Reservoir lake bed from Oct. 1 to Nov. 19, 2018. The next phase — from April through August of this year — will use a suction dredge to remove sediment in wet conditions, followed by centrifuge technology to remove elemental mercury.
A goal is to demonstrate methodologies of removing mercury-contaminated sediment from a reservoir. When complete, this project can act as a replicate process, applied at other impacted reservoirs throughout the Sierra Nevada. Findings from this project will become valuable to state regulators and help water managers address mercury in our aquatic food chain.
The American Society of Civil Engineers will give the award during an April 24 ceremony in Sacramento.
Source: theunion.com
