How the Processing and Transportation Facilities Will Work

Once dredging begins, barges loaded with dredged sediments will be pushed by tugboats through Lock 7 of the Champlain Canal and travel approximately one mile upstream to the project's Processing and Transportation Facility in Fort Edward, N.Y.

Barges will then dock at the newly-constructed 1,450-foot wharf. Dredged sediments will be removed by either a crane or excavator. Large debris such as rocks and tree limbs will be sorted out. The remaining sediment will be processed through a trommel screen and hydrocyclones to sort out additional debris and sand.

The debris and sand will be transferred by dump truck to an on-site staging area near the rail yard. The remaining fine sands and silt material will be pumped to a 41,000-square-foot, 50-foot-high building in which it will be sent through 12 filter presses for dewatering. The dewatered sediment removed from the presses, or "filter cake," will be trucked to enclosed storage areas near the rail yard.

Water collected during the dewatering process, along with rain that falls on material handling areas, will be collected for treatment. The on-site water treatment plant will be able to handle approximately two million gallons of water a day. Once treated, water will be discharged to the Champlain Canal. Monitoring will verify compliance with requirements established by EPA.

Dewatered sediments and debris will be loaded from the storage areas to railcars staged in a newly-constructed rail yard with nearly seven miles of rail track. A fleet of approximately 450 gondola rail cars will be used. A switcher locomotive will assembly 81-car unit trains and stage them on a departure track for pickup by CP Rail.

Four rail carriers will transport trains to a waste disposal facility in Texas. After unloading at the facility, empty trains will return to the processing facility and be set by CP Rail on a receiving track. On average, one full train will leave the processing facility and one empty train will return about every four to five days.