Sevenson has completed 30,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment removed from Pompton Lake, with 100,000 more to go. The Sevenson workers have dredged and hauled away about 2,000 truckloads of contaminated sediment in the first phase of a long-awaited $50 million cleanup of a portion of Pompton Lake.
Equipment at the site is now being removed for the winter, and activity won’t resume until March or April, when the far larger second phase of the cleanup begins to remove sediment laced with mercury, lead and other contaminants from about 36 acres of the 200-acre lake on the border of Pompton Lakes, Wayne and Oakland.
Before the project began, residents raised concerns about the potential for dust, noise and truck traffic that might be generated. But Pompton Lakes officials and some residents said the work has proceeded without disrupting neighbors or Lakeside Middle School, which is next to the staging area for the equipment.
“This part of the cleanup went very smoothly for us,” said Michael Serra, the Pompton Lakes mayor. “The school seemed to be able to work around the issues. There were a lot of concerns by parents about truck traffic, but we were able to move some crossing guards into new locations.
“It’s good to see the project move ahead,” Serra said. He said he received no complaints about truck traffic or noise.
Paul Amoroso, the Pompton Lakes School District superintendent, agreed. “From what I have observed the lake remediation project has not posed any disruption to the students or staff at Lakeside School, or at the Board of Education office,” he said in an email. “The trucks don’t run until after the school day has started, and stop for a period in the afternoon that coincides with our dismissal times. The trucks also travel away from the school, so we don’t have any truck traffic coming towards and passing Lakeside.”
Mary Brown, a resident on Lakeside Avenue just across from the work site, said that while the project has been noisy at times, dust has not been an issue. “The workers are very considerate,” she said. “They’ve been great.”
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