Syracuse, N.Y. (AP) - Crews have begun dredging Onondaga Lake as part of a five-year, $450 million project to clean up what was once considered one of the nation's most polluted bodies of water.
Dredging machinery began scooping sediment from the lake bottom on Monday. The work will go on 24 hours a day, six days a week, and will only stop during the winter months. In addition to dredging 185 acres of lake bottom, another 400 acres will be capped.
Decades of waste dumping by industries surrounding the lake in Syracuse and neighboring communities poured mercury and other metals along with solvents and PCBs into the lake, which was added to the federal Superfund list in 1994.
Honeywell International is in charge of the clean-up the project, which is expected to take five years.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.)
