ST. PETERSBURG - Even the alligators have grown old waiting.
The plan to clean Lake Maggiore, which first emerged in the 1980s, has survived rising costs, complex approval processes, sticky legal challenges and nagging questions about the technology involved.
But the $13-million job at last is ready to start, officials say.
Next month, crews will start building machinery to draw and clean water from 4 feet of lake-bottom muck.
By spring, a dredge using an 8-inch pipe will begin hosing up 1.53-million cubic yards of sludge. That's enough to fill most of Tropicana Field.
"This is by far the most challenging endeavor our office has entered into," said Mike Connors, city engineer.
It is scheduled to take 27 months. Just getting ready to do the job has cost $4.6-million.
The project won't affect Boyd Hill Nature Trail or the Pioneer Village, officials say, nor will the lake's shoreline change.
Eleven new dump trucks will haul sludge, drained of water, to the sod farm or the Toytown landfill in a mid county industrial belt. They will use a temporary "haul road" connecting to 28th Street S. They will take 28th Street to 26th Avenue S, go west to 31st Street S and then to Interstate 275. Despite 80 round trips daily, the trucks are expected to have "relatively low impact" on streets and neighborhoods, officials say.
The project has earned serious attention from those who watchdog the 380-acre lake and the adjacent 1,200 acres of city land, including Boyd Hill Nature Park.
Most recently, lawyer Peter Belmont challenged on grounds that project planners weren't doing enough to consider the effect on wildlife and wetlands.
City officials modified some plans and reached a settlement with Belmont last month, opening the door for work to begin.
Despite the agreement, veteran environmental activist Belmont said he remains uncomfortable.
"I guess in a number of ways, I'm not happy about the situation. I'm still concerned the project is not going to be as successful as portrayed, and I'm still disappointed the city could not come up with another location" to clean the water, Belmont said late last week.
The central feature, called a "dewatering site," sits on a dozen acres west of the lake. Naturalists have been concerned the work will disturb eagles that have nested nearby for years. The haul road cuts through woods home to wildlife.
The city has agreed to build devices to protect the animals and to educate workers about the need to avoid disturbing them. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection will give Belmont data showing the state of water going back in the lake.
"I would hope the DEP would hold (the city's) feet to the fire," Belmont said.
Jahna Dredging Inc., the Lakeland-based contractor, also will have an archaeologist looking over its shoulder to make sure no submerged artifacts, such as Indian canoes, are damaged.
Because the project is considered an important demonstration of lake restoration in general, other agencies will watch closely. One is helping pay: the Southwest Florida Water Management District, known as Swiftmud, is splitting the cost with St. Petersburg.
Lakes everywhere can die from accumulating decayed plant material and pollution from sources such as storm runoff. Choked long enough, the lakes can become little more than glorified puddles - not good for wildlife and certainly not pleasant in an urban setting such as Lake Maggiore's.
"This project is considered a bellwether of sorts as it relates to lakes throughout the Southeast," Connors said.
Averaging 8 feet, Lake Maggiore wouldn't become much deeper after the project. The obvious difference would be in the way it looks: 2 to 3 feet of transparency, Connors said, compared to its 2- to 3-inch level now.
A cleaner Maggiore also means a cleaner Tampa Bay estuary because the two water bodies are connected by Salt Creek. Officials believe the lake, which began noticeably deteriorating as long ago as the 1950s, also will be a much more attractive recreation spot.
Lakes go through their own life-and-death cycles. But population growth often is a factor that can hurry their demise. Storm runoff carrying fertilizer from landscaping around houses and businesses feeds aquatic plants and boosts algae growth. When plants and algae die, they decompose and use oxygen in the water, causing fish to die and limiting other life.
Lake Seminole is another on the cleanup list. Pinellas County officials had hoped a company might try a demonstration project, but none stepped forward.
David Talhouk, the county engineer overseeing the project, said Lake Seminole is budgeted for sediment removal in 2008. Meanwhile, he is keeping an eye on what happens at Lake Maggiore.
"It needs to be approached as a material separation problem, not a dredging problem," Talhouk said. "What do you do once you get it dredged? Then how do you get the water back in the lake so that it's clean?"
Connors, the city engineer, said he believes the Maggiore job will be a first for the technology used, although similar methods have been used in mining operations and to "dewater" sludge in wastewater treatment.
"All of these dewatering techniques have been employed at wastewater treatment plants (and) some water treatment plants for sludge mining operations in the phosphate industry. However, this is the first time these units have been pulled together to dewater nutrient-rich organic sediment," Connors said.
