[CPEO-MEF] SEDIMENT: Groton Naval Submarine Base (CT) drredging

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Projects dredge up toxic past at sub base

Waterfront cleaned up for use by Virginia class

By Judy Benson
The Day (CT)
January 4, 2010

Groton - Like power-washing layers of grime off a rooftop in a sooty 
industrial city, the dredging projects under way this winter at the 
Naval Submarine Base are scooping away the silt and mess from the 
near-shore river bottom after decades of military use, and unwitting abuse.

The two projects, begun last month, span a large area of the Thames 
River waterfront at the base and will render it more usable for today's 
Virginia-class subs, as well as tugs and other equipment. In all, the 
two projects will cost about $14 million and are removing 185,000 cubic 
yards of river bottom sediment - some of it so highly contaminated it 
will have to be trucked to a toxic-waste landfill out of state.

The smaller of the two projects, in the area known as the lower base, is 
the more complex, because it involves the highly polluted soils. One day 
last month, as a giant claw-like shovel attached to a crane pulled load 
after load of inky black muck from the dark depths, Richard Conant, 
environmental program manager, described the work. The claw was attached 
to a crane operated by one of the project contractors, Mohawk Northeast.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.theday.com/article/20100104/NWS01/301049975/1017

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



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