Bishop Water joins Chedoke Creek cleanup

Bishop Water will be joining a team of environmental remediation specialists, that includes Milestone Environmental Contracting Inc. and ECO Technologies Ltd., to complete the targeted dredging of Chedoke Creek in Hamilton, Ontario. The project, scheduled to start late this summer, aims to remove over 10,000 cubic metres of nutrient-rich contaminated sediments from a 19,000m2 section of the creek.

As part of the project, our technicians will set up and operate the Bishop Solids Management Solution (BSMS) to provide a simple, low-energy process to collect and dewater the material that is dredged by ECO Technologies. This system uses only a fraction of the energy that more complex alternatives such as centrifuges require. Rather than spinning or squeezing the material, the BSMS is a passive process that uses only Geotube® geotextile containers, polymers and gravity.

The Bishop Solids Management Solution achieves a high level of dry solids using only Geotube geotextile containers, polymers and gravity.

Bench tests performed in our laboratory verified that the BSMS process will effectively dewater the sediments and achieve a high level of dry solids . This low-energy reduction in volume means that fewer trucks will be needed to transport the sediments off site, thereby decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and local traffic.

Our technicians will work with the general contractor, Milestone Environmental, to construct two lined dewatering cells within a dredge material management area upland of the creek. Each of these cells will contain several massive Geotube containers, measuring 36.5 metres in circumference and either 34.7 or 30.5 metres in length.

The hydraulic dredge will pump sediments directly to the Geotube and a manifold system will enable operators to quickly and easily route the flow to maintain the high pumping speed while allowing filtrate to drain from the containers. The lined cell will also contain the filtrate from the Geotube units and collect it for a dedicated pump to transfer the water to the city sewer system for treatment.

We look forward to working with our colleagues from Milestone Environmental and ECO Technologies on this important environmental remediation project for the City of Hamilton.