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Saranac River clean-up to begin this spring

Environmental Issues – February 24, 2010

www.pressrepublican reports that efforts to remove contaminated sediment along a section of the Saranac River near Plattsburgh will begin this spring.

The Department of Environmental Conservation is overseeing plans to remove an estimated 39,200 cubic tons of sediments and riverbank contaminated with coal tar from a manufactured-gas plant that operated for decades at the Saranac Street location.

“A considerable volume of coal tar leaked into the sandy soil and eventually found its way into the Saranac River over a 60-year period,” DEC Project Manager Lech Dolata said. “We’ve looked at several plans and have come up with an option we feel benefits everyone.”

Engineers have spent the past few years cleaning contaminated soil from the property adjacent to the work site and had to occasionally adjust activities when concerns of foul odors or other health issues arose from area residents or nearby Stafford Middle School. That project, which ended last autumnl, helped remove 151,970 tons of tar-contaminated soils, materials that would have eventually made their way into the Saranac and Lake Champlain.

The upcoming river phase of the project is expected to take three years, with activities in the river itself limited to May through September to reduce the project’s impact on the spring and fall spawning runs for the fish populations.

“The option we’ve selected requires excavation under dry conditions to prevent the re-distribution of contaminants down river.” That means workers will place dams above and below the work site to stop the river flow while contaminated sediment between the dams is removed.