Three months of Decker Lake dredging is mostly complete. Now the hard work begins.
Already, an estimated 78,000 cubic yards of material has been dredged from the lake, said George Raiter, general manager of Industrial Pond Services Inc. That's approximately 228 million pounds - or 114,000 tons - of organic matter removed from the long-abandoned lake.More than 95 percent of dredging was completed Aug. 11, Raiter said. The Washington-based contractor began work at the lake in April. Its contract with spearhead-organizer Salt Lake County calls for the elimination of 80,000 cubic yards of the organic matter, which is 50 percent clay and 50 percent silt.
Decker Lake is located at 2300 W. Research Way at Parkway Boulevard (2495 South). At its deepest point, the man-made lake is only seven feet deep. Industrial Pond dredged six feet below the lake's existing bottom to remove pollutants.
The solid wastes, which settled on its floor, are mostly automotive oils, metals and cleaning solvents, said Terry Way, Salt Lake County engineering division liaison. Way said tests confirm the material, however nasty, is not hazardous. It will be mixed with sand, tree chippings and sludge from the waste water division and deposited at a proposed golf course near the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon. The site is the former home of a gravel pit.
According to Raiter, Industrial Pond is now surveying the extracted material to determine if further dredging is needed. Mounds of the hardened material greet the casual visitor in dewatering ponds around the lake. The ponds are nearly 7 feet tall. Removal - phase two of the lake cleanup - is expected to start at the end of September, Way said.
Design plans for the lake, to be converted into the Decker Lake Wetlands Preserve, are slowly coming together. The Decker Lake Wetlands Preserve Foundation was incorporated a month ago to develop the area, schedule programming and raise $350,000 to match an Environmental Protection Agency grant.
Diana Lehman, the foundation's chair, said most of the matching money will come from in-kind support and volunteer dollars. She also said the group is trying to keep the proposed educational preserve on a non-fee user basis. The 21-member board is now writing bylaws, conceptualizing design schemes and conducting a survey.
"We're trying to stay away, as much as possible, from the actual picture and have everyone say `This is what it's going to look like.' We would rather save our dollars and put it into research. We need to have something by spring (when the dredged solids should be moved)," Lehman said.
"This is a chance to overcome community apathy," she continued. "A single agency could turn (Decker Lake) into something outstanding. For the lake to stay clean is up to the community's involvement."
According to Way, Salt Lake County is spending $450,000 on dredging operations, $100,000 on waste removal and $180,000 to stabilize the lake's now-vertical bank.