Fall Work

Emergency Drill

Taking a proactive approach to safety, on October 23, 2013 Arconic (formerly Alcoa) held an on-the-water emergency drill in partnership with the sampling contractor and the Massena Rescue Squad. The purpose of the drill was to gauge response times and learn if there are other steps that should be taken to ensure the safety of personnel working in boats on the Grasse River. The simulated emergency was a worker on an on-river boat with chest pains. The "patient" was safely brought to shore and transported from a dock to a waiting emergency vehicle. A key learning from the drill was that, when project work is underway on the river, it will be helpful to identify additional access points at which quick landings can be made to transfer patients to waiting ambulances in the event of an emergency.

Sampling

Project work moved forward during fall 2013 with three activities that are all critical to the design of the project.

• Additional sediment samples were collected from shallow areas and main channel of the river by boat. These additional samples will help refine the near shore dredging and main channel capping boundaries.
• A geotechnical analysis was performed to document the types of soils found along the riverbanks. This information will be used by engineers to help design the project in a manner that will not impact the stability of the river banks.
• A survey crew collected data on the shoreline and shallow area elevations using GPS equipment.