Crews are finally cleaning up toxic sludge found at the bottom of the Elizabeth River.
With a clamshell grabber big enough to fit several humans inside crews dig to the bottom of the Elizabeth River at Money Point. They are digging to get dark black goo sometimes buried up to five feet below the riverbed.
"The smell is a distinctive smell. If you've ever smelled tar baking in the sun that's the smell," say Joe Rieger with the Elizabeth River Project.
The crews have set up shop at the site of the old Eppinger and Russell Creosote Plant in Chesapeake.
The tar-like wood preservative was used to coat telephone poles and pier pilings contaminating the river for over 100 years.
"What happened is that they would treat the wood, put it out on docks, and it would drip in the hot sun like today into the river," says Joe.
Cleaning the mess up has been one of Joe's main missions at the Elizabeth River Project.
He and others have studied the effects of the globs of creosote on fish populations and other species with dangerous hydrocarbons hundreds of times higher than normal levels many just couldn't survive.
"You want to see it below 45 parts per million, says Joes.
After these crews remove over 15,000 cubic yards of goo from the river bottom fresh sand will be laid and a 3 acre oyster reef will be installed.
In all 25 acres of river bottom will be restored.
"Basis of food chain, hope fish return to the area," says Joe.
This same technique was used in a smaller area of the river back in 2009 and they have already seen drops in cancer rates among fish.
This phase of the dredging is expected to be completed in July, and the oyster reefs and fresh sand will be laid sometime this fall.
With a clamshell grabber big enough to fit several humans inside crews dig to the bottom of the Elizabeth River at Money Point. They are digging to get dark black goo sometimes buried up to five feet below the riverbed.
"The smell is a distinctive smell. If you've ever smelled tar baking in the sun that's the smell," say Joe Rieger with the Elizabeth River Project.
The crews have set up shop at the site of the old Eppinger and Russell Creosote Plant in Chesapeake.
The tar-like wood preservative was used to coat telephone poles and pier pilings contaminating the river for over 100 years.
"What happened is that they would treat the wood, put it out on docks, and it would drip in the hot sun like today into the river," says Joe.
Cleaning the mess up has been one of Joe's main missions at the Elizabeth River Project.
He and others have studied the effects of the globs of creosote on fish populations and other species with dangerous hydrocarbons hundreds of times higher than normal levels many just couldn't survive.
"You want to see it below 45 parts per million, says Joes.
After these crews remove over 15,000 cubic yards of goo from the river bottom fresh sand will be laid and a 3 acre oyster reef will be installed.
In all 25 acres of river bottom will be restored.
"Basis of food chain, hope fish return to the area," says Joe.
This same technique was used in a smaller area of the river back in 2009 and they have already seen drops in cancer rates among fish.
This phase of the dredging is expected to be completed in July, and the oyster reefs and fresh sand will be laid sometime this fall.
