Published Sept. 17, 2008 by The Current Sauce
Chaplain's Lake, a body of water once admired for its aesthetic appeal, was drained over the summer, and the city has now finalized the rest of the construction plans. The recent activity in the now-empty basin near the north end of the lake has caught the community's attention.
For the past two weeks, a CAT marsh buggy has been treading through the muddy remains of the lake, swirling a 50-foot metal arm around in the slimy material.
The sludge is actually a mixture of lime, alum and silt, according to Regional Construction owner Pat Johnson.
"It's just dirt, mainly," Johnson said.
When water from Sibley Lake goes through the water treatment plant's filtration system, all the sediment from the bottom of the lake enters the system. The water treatment plant backwashes the water, leaving sludge that is carried through a water line and deposited in Chaplain's Lake, which runs alongside Jefferson Drive.
The mud occupying the north end of Chaplain's Lake is a 10-year buildup of all the sediment that is being discarded by the water treatment plant, Johnson said.
Regional Construction, a company Johnson started in 2002, will remove the material from the lake and transport it to a containing area, where it will dry out and be saved for later use. Then, water will be poured back into the lake, returning it to its usual state.
The project is part of Natchitoches City Bid number 0464, which presented the city with a couple of options.
The city could either dredge - set up a barge in the middle of the lake and remove the sediment with a pump - or excavate - manually scoop up the sediment with excavation machinery. As made obvious by the tractors currently parked in and around the lake, the city decided on the latter.
Chuck Bourg, the director of the Physical Plant on campus, said representatives from NSU have attended meetings with the engineers and environmental consultants on this project to make sure things are going smoothly, even though the project is not their responsibility.
"We've taken a proactive stance and we want to be involved," Bourg said.
Bid 0464 was awarded Aug. 11 at a city council meeting for $256,000, Bourg said. The city hired an environmental consultant and engineer because certain permits needed to be filed for the Army Corps of Engineers, Bourg said.
Johnson's company, Regional Construction, is under a contract to remove 5,000 cubic yards of the material before the city can fill the lake with water again.
"I'm trying to make sure that we get the material out, but yet not damage the system that's in place right now," Johnson said.
In particular, the marsh buggy operators have to watch out for two 16-inch waterlines and a 24-inch waterline resting four feet beneath the water's surface. The lines extend across the width of the lake.
Wooden markers adorned with pink tape stretch across the width of the lake. Regional Construction measured elevation all the way across, then measured from the bottom of the tape down to the top of the silt. Then, the company calculated how much material must move in order to reach the 5,000 cubic yard goal. The average cut will be about 1.8 feet, Johnson said.
"When we get through, you'll have about four more feet of water in here than what's out there right now," Johnson said.
The silt should be removed before the end of this month. The lake should be filled with water again sometime in November.
Regional construction has helped out with many other projects on campus. They paved the asphalt of the walking track that winds alongside Chaplain's Lake and serves as a scenic route for athletes, students and community members.
Elisha Ibanga, a frequent runner and sophomore political science major, said the lake's current appearance diverts his running path - and his eyes - elsewhere.
"One of the things you always hear about [NSU] is that the campus looks great, and that definitely does not look cool," Ibanga said.
Ibanga said he still runs on the path, but not as often. Sometimes, he runs around the campus to avoid looking at the construction.
"It just doesn't look good, as far as campus appearance goes," Ibanga added. "Think of it sort of like a park. Would you want your park looking like that? Or your yard?"
The plans for Chaplain's Lake do consider physical appeal, though. If the city left the sediment in Chaplain's Lake alone, the silt deposits would eventually build up and form small islands and sandbars in the middle of the lake, rising up over the surface of the water, Bourg said.
"This is just to remove the silt that's in there now. The lake is not going to look any different once they're finished; it will look just like it did before," Bourg said.
This time, the city also plans to build a curtain wall around the lake to make sure the sediment from Sibley Lake will fall within a containment area instead of ending up in the middle of Chaplain's Lake, ensuring that the problem will be easier to fix if it happens again, Bourg said.
It is definitely a possibility, Bourg said, as this is the third time the city has had to drain Chaplain's Lake. The last project started about 10 years ago.
