Mill River Dredging Starts Soon

Over the next several weeks, there will be increased activity on the Mill River in Fairfield, Connecticut in preparation for the upcoming dredging activities, according to the First Selectman Mike Tetreau.

TRC Environmental Corp (the engineering firm that will be conducting the cleanup work) will begin deploying boats, barges, dredging equipment and other equipment into the Mill River and adjacent to Exide Group Inc.’s (Exide’s) property.

As part of the in-water preparations, TRC has installed floating turbidity meters (yellow buoys with solar panels) to collect background water quality data. The barge-mounted dredge will be moved upstream and positioned in Area V (northern most section of the Mill River site). Turbidity curtains and a discharge pipeline will also be installed.

When dredging is completed for the season, the equipment will be removed from the river and stored at Exide’s property for the winter.

The Mill River Cleanup project will involve the following:

• Hydraulic dredging of approximately 27,000 cubic yards of lead impacted sediments to achieve established cleanup goals;
• Use of geotextile tubes for the dredge slurry dewatering system;
• Dewatering filtrate treatment system with discharge of treated water to Mill River in accordance with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit;
• Dewatered sediment transported off-site for final disposal at approved landfills.

A public information meeting on the cleanup will be held Oct. 14 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Board of Education conference room, 501 Kings Highway East, and on Oct. 15, dredging will begin in Area V.