{Article taken from www.jacksonville.com}

A long-awaited dredging project at Huguenot Lake in Jacksonville Beach turned up beer cans, bicycle handlebars, golf balls and other items this week, along with the expected heaps of sand and silt.

The lake-deepening job, expected to take about six months, could come up with a lot more unexpected finds, project officials said as they watched the scooped materials gush into a spoil pit. Dredging started Tuesday. "This is just the beginning of what we'll pull out of here," said Dave Driver, Vice President of Operations for Bull Dredging of Neptune Beach. Stormwater runoff through the years has filled the block-long body of water at Huguenot Park at 16th Avenue South with sand and silt, rendering it almost ineffective as a retention pond, said Bill Bull Jr., the dredging company's vice president.

The pond, which also has been a popular fishing spot, is 1 to 2 feet deep. By the time the dredging job is finished in July, the depth should increase to between 5 and 7 feet, Bull said. The above-ground spoil area, which is fenced in and lined with filtering fabrics, is set up where playground equipment used to be. The equipment is being refurbished and will be set up again after the project's finished, Bull said.

Huguenot Lake is key to the city's stormwater drainage system. It collects runoff from Third Street and neighborhoods east of Third Street that is piped to a 12th Avenue South treatment pond and eventually to the Intracoastal Waterway.

The park's pier and eastside playground will be closed during the project.

The dredging project was supposed to start in April and finish in November but was postponed by state permitting delays.

Bull Dredging will not drain the lake during the excavation. It will use environmentally acceptable dredging equipment designed to protect fish, turtles and other wildlife.

The project should make the lake more attractive to wildlife. Over time, the lake grew more shallow as it silted, causing the water to heat up more quickly and lose oxygen.

"It should improve the habitat for them," said Public Works Director Ty Edwards.

Two operators will maneuver a dredge barge around the lake as an Archimedes-type screw attached to the bow bores into the lake bottom, pulling up silt, sand and other materials that then will be pumped to the spoil area via a floating pipeline.