By Ian Thompson DAILY REPUBLIC December 05, 2008
Rob Lowrey clears debris caught in the auger of the dredger Nehalem before starting work Friday morning on the Suisun Slough. The auger cuts through the floor of the slough in a wide arc while the silt is sucked away through a large pipe. Photo by Brad Zweerink
SUISUN CITY - The dredger Nehalem greets each morning with a wet growl as the boom-mounted auger is started to cut loose the silt that is then sucked into a pipe from the bottom of the Suisun Slough.
It sweeps slowly back and forth using pylons, or 'spuds,' driven into the mud like a gate post, deepening a fan-like area of the slough before pulling up the posts and advancing to a new location a little farther up the channel.
Sixteen hours later, the dredgers, under the direction of supervisor Vern Scovell, shut down for the night to start again the next day in their quest to make Suisun City's marina deep enough for its boaters to use for the next six years.
Scovell, who grew up on the Nehalem River in Oregon, has been in the dredging business for 45 years. He supervises the small fleet of vessels now in the Suisun Slough. The fleet includes a floating workshop and supply ship called the Eland, two dredgers and a small support boat called the Bar Fly.
'We have everything to support the dredging that we can think of,' Scovell said of the tons of pipes, gears, cable, engine parts and crew supplies carried aboard the Eland.
The Eland brings in the dredgers, which are slid down the vessel's back ramp once it arrives at the dredging location.
Scovell and his crew have dug up and pumped out silt and mud that have choked boat channels and harbors from Alaska to Southern California. They have even ventured into the Pacific Ocean as far as Midway Island for work.
'And old Mother Nature keeps silting them in,' Scovell quipped in reference to all the harbors he has cleared.
The dredgers have occasionally pulled up whatever people have lost or dumped into the water, which has ranged from large rocks to indoor/outdoor carpeting.'
Thursday night, we got two anchors that were stuck in the dredger,' Scovell said when asked what he has encountered here thus far.
Each time, the dredger has to be shut down so that the crew can clear the obstruction from the dredger's auger or pipes.
The worst was a rock dredged up during a job in Eureka 'that split the pump like an eggshell' and threatened to sink the dredger as water poured into the vessel.
See the complete story at the Daily Republic online.
