Work on 'silt lagoon' for Peel Marina dredging to begin

A total of 44,000 tonnes of silt will be removed from the harbour in two phases

Work on a temporary "silt lagoon" to hold contaminated material dredged from a Manx marina will start next week, the government has said.

Planning approval for the pool to hold about 44,000 tonnes of material from Peel Marina, including cadmium and lead, was given in 2019.

Work on the 600,000 sq ft (about 55,000 sq m) lagoon near the town's power station will begin on 13 January.

Dredging, which was last carried out in 2015, will begin in March.

The work, which is necessary to maintain access to the berths in the marina, will be done in two stages - with the first 22,000 tonnes removed between March and May and the second across the same period in 2021.

Dredging of Peel Marina was last carried out in 2015

The Department of Infrastructure (DOI) said once excess water has been removed from the silt, it will transported to a "strategic waste landfill facility".

A DOI spokesman said a previous proposal to use the dried sediment to fill in areas of erosion at the former Cross Vein Mine near Foxdale had been scrapped and planning permission would instead be sought to store it at Turkeylands Quarry in Ballasalla.

DOI member Tim Baker MHK said the work would "deal with the material in a way which is acceptable from both an environmental and financial perspective".

"Most importantly, it will ensure the marina is restored to its correct level for access and operation", he added.

About £900,000 was earmarked for the two-and-a-half-year project in the 2019-20 budget.

The field housing the lagoon, at Ballaterson Farm, will be reinstated once it has been dismantled during the summer of 2022.