News

City will zero in on Crystal Lake dredging cost

By Matthew K. Roy
Staff writer
Published: August 20, 2008

PEABODY — The city has to do some digging before dredging Crystal Lake.

"We need some background information, and we're in the process of acquiring it," Senior City Planner Blair Haney said. "It's in our best interest to get as much information as possible."

Earlier this summer, the City Council asked Mayor Michael Bonfanti to borrow $1.5 million to dredge the lake.

The mayor responded in a letter that the request was "premature," and that "the project scope and cost estimates still need to be identified before a bond is authorized."

The $1.5 million amount was derived from information provided to the council by the Friends of Peabody Lakes, a community group dedicated to the protection and cleanup of the city's waters.

"It would be irresponsible for the city to bond for this amount without determining the total cost of the project," the mayor said in his response.

"It makes common sense," Bonfanti said yesterday about the city investigating the project. The council last month voted to remove the dollar figure from the bond request and give the Community Development Office time to do just that.

Haney is responsible for researching the best, most cost-effective way to dredge the lake. He said yesterday that the multistage job — digging up the sediment, removing the water from it and then relocating the dredged material — could be done in a variety of ways, which makes the price difficult to nail down. This is particularly the case with "de-watering" the material that is dug up.

For example, the city could choose to put the dredged material in a container and let gravity gradually drain it, or it could opt for a machine that "squeezes" the material and extracts the water. These are just two options among many that present differing costs and take varying amounts of time to complete, Haney said.

Haney traveled to Northampton last weekend to observe a dredging project there and plans to visit Wakefield soon see another. He expects to update the council next month on his progress, but a definitive cost estimate will likely be available later in the fall, he said.

Crystal Lake has for years been hampered by the buildup of organic matter and sediment, which transformed waters once deep enough for swimming into a shallow pond overrun with weeds. A survey revealed that up to 41,000 cubic yards of sediment has to be removed from it and its nearby cousin, Elginwood Pond, to achieve a desired depth of 8 feet.

Peabody will receive $800,000 from the state to put toward cleaning up the lake. The city last year experimented with "biodredging." During a first-of-its-kind test, genetically created bacteria consumed a portion of the sediment choking the 10-acre pond. But the results didn't impress the council or the Friends of Peabody Lakes.