Cleaning up polluted sediments isn’t an easy task. Standard remediation methods include dredging contaminated sediments or capping with clean sand. Both procedures are costly and disruptive to the existing ecosystem.
Enter Upal Ghosh.
Ghosh, who researches the effects of toxic pollutants on the environment, had developed a way of using the charcoal, the same kind found in home water filters, to effectively bottle up the contamination and keep it out of the ecosystem.
Ghosh’s idea had been tried successfully before, but only to a small degree, Greene said. Ghosh did some reconnaissance of Mirror Lake and agreed the procedure could work on a larger scale.
Ghosh’s method is less expensive and less disruptive to the environment. On November 4 the State of Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control started spreading Ghosh’s pellets across Mirror Lake in Dover.
The project not only covers the 3.5 acres of the lake and its immediate environs, but stretches down the St. Jones River to just past the Court Street Bridge.
Making the project the largest of its kind in the country.
Tests have shown the charcoal infusion can contain up to 90 percent of PCBs and up to 84 percent of mercury contamination. The result is that a process that could have taken between four and seven decades, if allowed to proceed naturally, could mean a safer Mirror Lake within the decade.
And that is good news for the residents of Dover.
Read the complete article in the Dover Post.
