Posted on December 4, 2018
A dredging project that will allow boats to dock in the Inner Harbor next year has had an unintended consequence: Garbage buried in the muck has returned to the surface.
Today was scheduled to be the last day for a skimmer boat that cleans trash out of the Inner Harbor, but the trash-collecting season will likely be extended.
“We may end up being here the entire winter,” said Chase Croyle, whose family owns the company, Enviro Aquatics, that has been skimming the harbor since June.
Standing on the skimmer boat in the harbor, Croyle pointed toward a floating mass of trash and wood.
“Yesterday this was completely clean, and now it’s a complete mess,” he said. “When they dredge up the muck from the bottom, this stuff comes back up.”
The New York state Canal Corp. announced the $10.3 million dredging project today. The work, being done by Carver Construction, of Altamont, will create an 8-foot deep channel for boats.
The dredging will remove tons of sand and silt that has flowed in through Onondaga Creek, making parts of the harbor just 2 feet deep. When the job is finished in May, it will help boost the $350 million transformation of the Inner Harbor into a residential and commercial center.
The county agreed to allow the dredged soil to be dumped at the former Roth Steel site near the Onondaga Lake shore, which the county Industrial Development Agency bought in 2015 to prevent its use as a scrapyard.
Enviro Aquatics works under a separate contract with Onondaga County as part of the county’s Connect the Drops campaign to reduce litter in Onondaga Lake. This is the firm’s first year cleaning the harbor and the channel to the lake.
The county said the previous firm skimmed 23 tons of litter in 2016. Croyle said Enviro Aquatics has removed five large dumpsters of trash since June, more than anticipated.
“We didn’t expect it to be like this,” Croyle said.
The most common items collected are bottles, plastic foam containers and hypodermic needles, he said. This year, the company found 600 needles.
They also pulled out strollers, bicycles, trees, tables, chairs, mattresses and trees, he said.
“Our main job is to clean up as much garbage as we can and keep it as clean as possible,” Croyle said.
Source: syracuse.com
