With the help of a plastic-lined containment pond, the city is in the process of removing about a dozen years of sediment near the corner of Highway 97 North and Hoferkamp Road.
The build up was the result of such activities as winter sanding, city utilities and engineering supervisor Kristy Brown said.
Because it is so wet, the material had to be put into the pond to dry out after it was sucked up with a vactor truck.
The process of transferring the material to the pond was completed this week and after sitting throughout the long weekend, it will be picked up by dump truck early next week and taken to the Shelley lagoon site.
The pond is lined with plastic to prevent contaminants from spilling onto the adjacent land. The plastic will also be removed and taken to the dump and then a hydro seeder will be brought in to seed the site, according to Ministry of Transportation specifications.
Because the location is located so close to McMillan Creek, an environmental consultant was brought in to provide onsite direction. The city also had to get permits from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Ministry of Environment.
Up to $100,000 was budgeted for the project and the on-the-ground began at the end of October.
The site had not been cleared since 2001, Brown said, and the plan now is to carry out the work on a more frequent basis and significantly reduce the cost in the process.
"We're hoping to just go back yearly so we can just better keep up with the sediment accumulation," Brown said. "It'll be a faster process and if we do it on a yearly basis it will be less (costly) of course."
