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Carmans River Proposal (Trusnovec)
First, let me say thank you for allowing me to present these ideas to you. Second, I would like to express to you that these ideas that I have, have no background in river or wildlife management of any sort. What they do have is 20+ years of construction, trucking, and heavy equipment experience, as well as a common sense approach to a problem that has been allowed to get completely out of control.
The Cabomba weed is a Non-Native plant that is STILL being sold in pet stores. It needs to be outlawed completely! (Your Guppy is going to have to swim around a plastic plant. Sorry! ) There have been states that have done this. To my knowledge,
First, it is important to remember, that nothing in this river system is an endangered species. And while the short term loss of habitat for many animals and other creatures that inhabit this river will be difficult, the cost of doing nothing is far greater. Also, while the river is physically located in Yaphank and the adjoining area, this is not just a local problem. The
This past April 1st, there were a few people. The first Saturday after that, there were two people fishing from shore, since then, I’ve seen virtually no one. By mid May, this lake was unfishable.
I, of course, was one of the lucky ones to grow up on this river, so it bothers me greatly to see this once pristine body of water, turn into a virtually unusable swamp. I have 3 children who don’t know what it was like, and that bothers me more than I can express to you. The Cabomba weed is known to thrive in slow moving, warm water.
· Step one is to drain the upper
· After the drying out period, A large bulldozer can be brought in, and start pushing in the edges. I believe this should take about a month. After this time, a second Bulldozer can be brought in, as well as a large pay loader to start taking out material. There are several access points on the upper lake that make this first part of the process more feasible.
I have figured a square yardage assessment based on this method: 10,000 ft. of river, times 150 ft. wide, (wider in some areas, narrower in others ) times 3 ft. of material that needs to be removed.
Length x width x depth / 27 = 167,000 yds. This includes both the upper and lower lakes.
The key to this project, is the Brookhaven Town Landfill, or other close area accepting this material free of charge.
Trucking - 4 dump trailers, 10 loads each, 35 yds.= 1400 yds. daily.
125 work days @ 1400 yds per day = 175,000 yds.
5000 loads for the entire project, at $110 = $550,000.00
5000 loads @ 35yds = 175,000 yds of material.
Equipment- Two D-8 Cat bulldozers and a Cat 980 Pay loader.
Approximately $12,000 each, monthly rental =$ 216,000 for 6 months. I believe this number is high, because you wouldn’t need all three machines for the entire 6 months.
Fuel - 100 gals. A day, times $3.00 a gal., times 3 machines, times 125 days = $112.500
Again, this number I believe is high, for the same reason as above, also I believe fuel consumption will be lower.
Salary- Difficult to assess, because different companies are going to pay different rates.
Assuming $250 a day, times 3 machine operators, times 125 days, we’re talking about $94,000. For the reasons stated above, this is only an estimate.
Logistically, I believe that the initial process of removing material would start out slow. Maybe two trucks a day, and see how fast or slow the process can move. Then bring the operation up to an efficient pace.
The lower Yaphank lake is in much worse condition. I personally live on the lower lake, and would like nothing more than to see this part of the river tackled first. However, handling the upper part first is a much more logical place to start, for a couple of reasons.
1. The upper lake is much more accessible to trucks and equipment. This is town property with an open beach area that would give access for much of this part of the project. This gives valuable experience to the project operators as to how the river bottom will react to trucks and equipment.
2. Any wild life removed from the upper lake could be easily transported to the lower lake while this project takes place, and vice-versa when the next step takes place. Hopefully, the lower lake will still sustain life for the fish at that time.
3. Doing the lower lake first creates the issue of the weed flowing downstream and contaminating a clean area.
The time frame for this project, I believe, would need to be as such:
Begin draining NOW! As everyone rocks back in their chairs with their hands up saying ”Whoa, we can’t do this now”, I say, Why Not? Precious time has been lost over the years, and I believe we are on the verge of dead fish on the lower lake. Another year lost could prove disastrous, if a large scale fish die-off is imminent. The lake needs to be drained in the warm weather, as during the winter, many species have burrowed into the mud for hibernation, and would not be able to be removed.
6 months of drying out puts us into the winter. Most trucking and equipment companies are slow in the winter, and these services would be easier to come by at that time of the year. While I am fully aware of weather concerns in winter, weather delays would still put the entire project back to late spring, early summer.
The final step, after refilling the lake, would be to treat the entire area with a Herbicide. As much as cancer patients must endure chemo- therapy after surgery, this will ensure that the entire problem is gone for good. As I’m sure you may be aware, there is a local project that is being conducted as we speak. It is 38 acres, and it cost around $75,000. That is a very affordable insurance policy.
In closing, I would like to say thank you again, and I look forward to speaking with you, and hopefully working with you in the near future to solve this very difficult problem.
(631) 872-7086
112huntr@optonline.net