Posted on April 10, 2023
Residents near the Marina should expect more noise in May when the silt is sucked and hauled away.
The Cold Lake Marina is getting de-mucked and de-sludged.
City council has approved additional funds to go ahead with dredging the Marina in May, which means the accumulating silt will be sucked out.
At last Tuesday’s regular meeting, council agreed to top up funding by $235,000. The total cost of the project is estimated at $750,000.
“The Marina over the last few years has really been filling in with silt, or whatever you want to call it from the lake, Just the way the marina’s designed, debris is washing and filling up the ground,” said Mayor Craig Copeland.
“We’ve got a couple of feet of debris, silt, that we’ve got to suck up, because a lot of the boats, especially the sailboats are having issues in there.”
Plans began for this project began in 2017 and council started to set aside funding in the following years. At that time, they hired Associated Engineering to consult on the work.
Between May 1 to May 15, 2023, prior to the Marina opening, those who live near the lake will hear the loud sucking noises from the dredging, for as much as 16 hours a day, according to city notes.
Access to the marina will be cut off tentatively on April 24.
The dredging work will be completed employing centrifuges, as this method will allow the dredged material to be hauled immediately, as centrifuges remove water right away from the dredged material.
That muck will be taken where the city dumps its snow in the north, where it will be compressed.
The new Cold Lake barge can be utilized as well.
“This machine is going to be pretty cool, it’s going to sort of have a floating apparatus to it, and it’s actually going to suck up the silt on the bottom, till they get to the clay and then the process will be it’ll spit back the water back to the lake,” said Copeland.
“We really appreciate the support that we’ve got from the federal government and provincial government on this project. It’s really going to allow some of the deeper hull boats to safely navigate in the Marina. Those that have been in the Marina know that all of that silt was creating all of the plant life that was coming up and interfering with boats in there, some are a couple hundred-thousand dollar boats.”
