(The following story by Cory Ireland appeared on the Democrat and Chronicle website on August 25.)
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Work began Monday on River Street in Charlotte to set up equipment for a project that will dredge portions of the Genesee River contaminated by a December 2001 chemical spill.
The actual dredging, by CSX Transportation contractors, will begin after Labor Day.
A CSX train derailed in a ball of fire on Dec. 23, 2001, toppling 23 cars of a 47-car train. As much as 14,000 gallons of solvents bound for Kodak Park spilled into shoreline soils and the river.
Sometime during the week of Sept. 6, workers will begin dredging one-third acre of river bottom, scooping up an estimated 3,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediments. The project will last about two months.
It is the second and final clean-up phase for the CSX spill, with oversight by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
The soil cleanup ended in 2002. CSX contractors removed 28,000 tons of dirt from a riverside site the size of a football field.
The dredging will dig down an average of 4 feet into river sediments.
Two layers of a plastic “silt curtain” will enclose the river site to prevent the spread of contaminated material.
Both state and Monroe County health officials signed off on the DEC-approved work plan, as well as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said CSX spokeswoman Jane Covington from her office in Pittsburgh, Pa.
The spoils, or dredged material, will be mixed with concrete while still on the barge, and then taken to a shoreline staging area. The concrete accelerates drying and makes the contaminants stable and inert, said Covington.
The staging area is at the foot of Petten Street, one mile south of the work site, where an asphalt pad will hold the waste while it is tested for degrees of contamination.
“We need to stage it somewhere, to sort it out,” said Ed Doherty, Rochester’s commissioner of environmental services.
But the city has no jurisdiction over the staging area, he said, and had more of a role during the soil phase, which largely took place on city-owned land.
“We’re not too deeply involved,” agreed city Corporation Counsel Linda Kingsley, who had been in on cleanup negotiations with CSX from the beginning. The work now is between the DEC and the train company, she said.
The most contaminated sediments will go to hazardous-waste landfills in Sarnia, Ontario, or Niagara Falls.
The least contaminated sediments will be buried at the Mill Seat Landfill in Riga — where the bulk of contaminated soils went two years ago.
The project includes provisions for odor control, said Covington, as well as continuous air monitoring.