New skimmer boat for Inner Harbor, 2004 report
|
A new trash skimmer boat made its maiden voyage and
began cleaning the Inner Harbor on April 22, 2004 as a
contract operation for the Onondaga County Department
of Water Environment Protection. The new boat was
built by Alpha Boats Unlimited of Weedsport, NY who
were the successful bidder on a new 5-year maintenance
services contract with the County to provide floatable
debris collection in the Inner Harbor of Syracuse and
along the mouth of Onondaga Creek. The contract
commenced with the 2004 season and covers through the
2008 season. By contracting for this operation, the
County is able to meet its Amended Consent Judgment
(ACJ) requirement to collect, remove and dispose of
floatables downstream of all Combined Sewer Overflows
(CSOs) which discharge into Onondaga Creek above the
Inner Harbor area.
The new vessel was built specifically by Alpha Boats
for this application after they were awarded the
maintenance services contract with the County. In
addition to collecting floating debris in the Harbor
itself, under the contract, the crew uses the vessel
to collect debris downstream of the Harbor to the
mouth of the creek at the lake and along a portion of
the lake shoreline.
The new boat includes articulating arms with conveyor
belts and a large collection area at the front of the
vessel. In addition, the vessel is equipped with a
hose to assist crews in removing debris from the
shoreline and behind and under docks. Specifications
for the boat are available below along with photos of
the boat in operation in the Inner Harbor.
Click here for the specifications for the Alpha Boats Marina Cleaner which is used in the Inner Harbor.
Because this was a new design for Alpha Boats, the
contractor was also interested and able to make
adjustments and modifications to improve the boat's
effectiveness. The add-on hose feature was one such
modification which the County had supported because of
the amount of debris which collects in the harbor
around docks, the two artificial "islands" near the
band stand and along the shoreline. The hose was very
helpful in retrieving debris in those areas.
The vessel was also sized dimensionally to the area of
operation and its operational flexibility and
maneuverability were improved with variable speed
bi-directional propellers and a 65-hp diesel engine.
We understand that representatives of other
municipalities have come with representatives of Alpha
Boats to the Syracuse harbor to see "our" vessel in
operation.
|
|
The new skimmer has an articulating vertical wing with a conveyor that captures the debris in the water.
|
Under the terms of the contract with the County and
dependent on weather conditions, the boat is to be
operated once a week during April and May and twice a
week during June, July, and August. The County may also request
additional collections as necessary or change days of
operation to coincide with events scheduled for the
Inner Harbor to insure the area is cleaned before the
events or to accommodate necessary additional debris
cleanup. Again in 2004, the County did not require
any additional "emergency" cleanups.
Initial activities in April usually involve cleaning
out of logs and trees that accumulate in the harbor
over the winter months. This was true again in 2004
with a large volume of trees and logs removed during
the initial collection days, as well as during the
rest of the summer with the large volume of high
intensity storms.
The crew is required to maintain daily logs to report
weather conditions, number of boat loads of debris
collected and descriptions of the debris. These logs
are used to compare types and volumes of debris
collected and days of operation.
From the daily logs and communications with
the contractor, it can be concluded that debris
collected was similar to previous years and included
the following: food containers, bottles, cups, dead
animals including mammals, fish and birds, boots,
balls of all types like footballs, tennis balls,
basketballs, condoms, feminine hygiene products, toys,
plastic bags, syringe needles and debris related to
street construction like saw horses and traffic cones.
Also as in previous years, some unique items were
picked up by the skimmer boat including: two bags of
groceries, a briefcase, couch cushions, mattress, huge
tarp, construction barrels, car parts, and some
plastic ducks from the community duck race.
|
|
Examples of the diverse debris collected by the skimmer boat
|
Again this year as in previous years, the vast
majority of floatable debris by weight and volume was
made up of tree limbs, logs, leaves and grass that
come down Onondaga Creek. The majority of the nonorganic
floatable debris was street debris and litter and
not derived from the combined sewer overflows. Debris
was present in the harbor following wet weather events
and dry weather periods as well.
It is, however, important to point out that every
collection included some materials derived from the
combined sewer overflows such as
condoms, feminine hygiene products and syringe
needles. This is important to keep in mind as
community groups continue to plan creek cleanups with
volunteers before completion of the County's lake
improvement projects related to the elimination and
mitigation of the combined sewer overflows upstream
of the Inner Harbor along Onondaga Creek.
Based on the daily logs at the daily rate of $1,332.00
and supported by the claim forms,
the following charts summarizes the number of days
worked per month by the County's contractor and the
related monthly costs for the 2004 season:
|
Month
|
# of days
|
Total cost
|
|
April
|
3
|
$3,996.00
|
|
May
|
4
|
5,328.00
|
|
June
|
8
|
10,656.00
|
|
July
|
9
|
11,988.00
|
|
August
|
9
|
11,988.00
|
|
September
|
5
|
6,660.00
|
|
October
|
5
|
6,660.00
|
|
November
|
4
|
5,328.00
|
|
Totals
|
47
|
$62,604.00
|
In addition, to the daily rate paid for 47 operating
days in 2004, the County agreed to pay Alpha Boats
$857.55 to cover additional disposal costs due to the
large increase in debris collected this season. This
brings total expenditures this year for the contract
operation to $63,461.55.
Under the contract with the County, Alpha Boats is
required to handle disposal of the collected debris.
During the 2004 season, Alpha Boats contracted with
Waste Management (WM) for waste disposal. Through WM,
a roll-off container was provided and staged near the
harbor launch site. Each day the skimmer vessel
operated, the debris collected was off loaded from the
boat via conveyor belt to the roll-off. When the
container was full, the contractor would notify WM to
pick up the roll-off and take the debris for disposal
to the appropriate OCRRA facility.
The contractor is required to file copies of the weigh
tickets received from Waste Management for disposal of
the debris to verify tonnage of debris removed by the
operation. The weigh tickets provide the basis for the
compilation of the total annual tonnage collected.
The WM roll-off dumpster was located near the third
bay of the Harbor and was changed out six times from
April through November of 2004. Continuous and heavy
rains in the summer months especially from mid-June to
mid-August contributed to higher than average disposal
tonnage on July 15th and August 19th. Also tonnage
collected during 2004 required that the roll-off
dumpster be emptied on a monthly basis with the
exception of October.
See Chart below:
|
Date debris disposed
|
Tonnage
|
|
5/13/04
|
1.83
|
|
6/4/04
|
2.86
|
|
7/15/04
|
5.52
|
|
8/19/04
|
4.52
|
|
9/13/04
|
3.58
|
|
11/24/04
|
3.15
|
|
Total
|
21.46 tons or 42,920 lb
|
Based on the daily logs for number of days of
operation and the weigh tickets for total tonnage
collected and disposed, the County compiled the
following statistics comparing the 2002, 2003 and 2004
seasons.
| Debris Disposal Comparison During 2002-2004 Seasons |
|
Season
|
Tons
|
# of debris collection days
|
Total season cost
|
|
2002
|
11.92
|
43
|
$64,625.00
|
|
2003
|
11.72
|
42
|
74,550.00
|
|
2004
|
21.46
|
47
|
63,461.55
|
Funding for the contractual services contract for
operation of the skimmer in the 2004 season and the
upcoming 2005 season is entirely covered through the
County Department of Water Environment Protection.
In 2004 under the new five-year contract, we collected
and disposed of over 9 tons more floatable debris than
in previous years, operated 4-5 more days for the
season than in previous years and at a cost about
$11,000 less than 2003 and $1,163 less than our first
year. 2004 was a success in terms of both monies saved
and trash collected.
| 
Susan Miller, Project Deputy Director
Onondaga County Dept of Water Environment Protection