Question

Julie raises a very valid question. What happens to the mess in the river? Well it is the contractor’s responsibility to remove the debris from the blast. As our contract states “Remove all reinforcing steel, all concrete, and all other debris that falls into the waterway or wetland except a small pile of concrete rubble no more than three feet high and no larger than the pier footing may be left at each pier provided all reinforcing steel is removed. This rubble may provide habitat for catfish provided the pile contain large holes for the fish to maneuver through.” This has since been amended to a pile of concrete rubble no more than six feet high, per the direction of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

I am sure you are all interested in the fish kill. According to the DNR about 100-150 fish were directly killed by the blast.

Approximately 75-85% were freshwater drum, ranging from 7-25 inches - about two dozen were over 20 inches. Approximately 10% were white bass about 7-12 inches.

Other species included:
About 10 black crappie ~ 6-8 inches.
About 5 channel catfish ~ 10-25 inches
2 walleye ~ 15 inches.
2 burbot ~ 7 inches.
One YOY blue gill

No lake sturgeon, sauger, yellow perch, carp or other cyprinids were observed.

This was taken just minutes before the blast. To help scare away fish we connected an air hose to the air compressor and plunged the hose around the pier.
Here is the blast from the water.Part of the fish kill.As for the clean up and how it is done. Using a crane and a clam bucket. It is a slow process. We are currently figuring one crane, in an 8 hour shift for 4 days should get us close to what is required. But as of this morning on the start of day 2 the top of the debris pile is about 10 feet below the water surface. They have another 10 feet to go.