I've been doing a lot of research on a DIY Muck Removal process for our 39 YO 3.5 AC BOW recently and think this could be a long-term project to slowly tackle removing the muck and debris in the lake. While researching all of this, I've found a few web sites with some good information that others may be interested in as there have been several posts on this subject over the years.
First, there's Piranha Pumps. (
http://www.piranhapumps.com/mini_dredges.html) This one's been shown before.
Some good looking equipment, but not cheap. $10,400 for their larger 165 unit. This is a twin pump unit that passes all material through the large trash pump and uses the smaller clean water pump to power an agitator jet to loosen the muck so it can be sucked up by the larger pump. This is a "muck through pump" unit.
Many of us saw Mike Rowe on TV recently doing some Diver Assisted Suction Harvesting (DASH) with the guys from Aqua Cleaner Environmental.
(
http://www.aquacleaner.com/)
These guys are basically using a modified gold dredge that uses twin clean water pumps to power a venturi nozzle that allows all of the sticks and leaves to be sucked up through the nozzle and then be separated from the slurry before the slurry is pumped off to the final destination that could be a settling pond or dewatering bag.
I've also found Waterfront Remodelers (
http://waterfrontremodelers.com) here in Georgia. They've since retired from the business, but their website has a lot of great project related pictures showing how they handle the muck slurry. This is also a "muck through pump" operation with a separate agitator pump to loosen the muck.
The big difference I see is whether or not to use a gold dredge style venturi nozzle that allows all of the hard organic items, twigs, sticks and leaves, to pass through the nozzle and be separated above water or to use a "muck through pump" approach and filter out the harder objects by using a filter strainer on the intake.
For simplicity's sake, the "muck through pump" approach allows for a single operator and requires fewer pumps and a simpler operation. The gold dredge approach requires a more substantial piece of equipment with a separating station where you'd normally have a sluice box and then a large slurry holding tank with a separate transfer pump to pump the filtered slurry to the dewatering site. A second person is also needed to separate the sticks and debris, and like the process Aqua Cleaner uses, package the debris so it can be off-loaded. This method leaves a cleaner lake bottom because everything is removed while the "muck through pump" rigs require that the large objects be left in the water since they can't go through the pump.
I can't create a thread like this without also mentioning Muck Doctor which is also here in Georgia. The Muck Doctor founder is now working with Greg Grimes and Greg says that he is just maintaining the web site and is no longer operating the business.
Hopefully I can continue to add content to this thread as my project gets off the ground this winter and I start putting it into action Spring of 2013.
Regards,
-RFL
