Storm Water Management (SWM) pond maintenance is an issue that many municipalities and road authorities throughout Canada are challenged with. To address the costly matter of sediment removal from a large and aging SWM pond, the City of Mississauga has recently undertaken an innovative method that is new to Canada. A hydraulic dredge was used to break sediment from the pond bottom into a slurry before pumping it to a large geotextile tubes for de-watering. The advantages to using this technology for sediment removal were noteworthy. Most importantly, there was minimal impact on the natural environment compared with the more traditional methods of de-watering the pond and using mechanical dredging, which can significantly affect the aquatic and terrestrial habitats, as well as the surface and ground water systems. As well, the costly issue of land and time requirements for de-watering of the sediment was also minimized through the use of use of polymer additive and by pumping to the geosynthetic tubes for de-watering. This project was nominated for the TAC 2007 Environmental Achievement Award. For the covering abstract of this conference see ITRD number E216597.
Abstract