The lagoon where silt from Peel marina will be dried is under construction.

Contractor Land and Water Services Limited (LAWS) is undertaking the work on behalf of the Department of Infrastructure and is building the temporary pool in a field upstream from the marina, beyond the power station site.

Once completed, the lagoon will be about 2.5 metres deep and measure roughly 70m by 100m.

Dredging is due to start in early March using a long reach excavator on a floating barge. The material will be transported 450 metres in purpose-designed trailers to the pool.

The silt will be removed by a lorry, meaning that 2,750 loads, each weighing 16 tonnes, will be taken the 450 metres up river.

Originally the plan had been for the silt to be removed using a pipeline but Infrastructure Minister Ray Harmer MHK confirmed in Tynwald that plan had changed.

The material will be stored in the pool and drained over a number of months before being suitable for transportation.

Originally, the plan was for silt to be used for land remediation at the former Cross Vane Mine (or Snuff the Wind) between Foxdale and Glen Maye.

The DoI has now changed its plan so that the silt will be deposited at the Turkeylands Quarry landfill in Malew.

Dredging will beginning in March this year when the DoI intends to remove about half of the silt. Around the same time, Colas, as site operator, plans to submit a planning application for the dumping at the landfill site Turkeylands and the silt will be sent there during the autumn/winter this year.

In spring 2021, the second phase of dredging will take place to remove the remaining 22,000 tonnes of silt from Peel Marina. During the autumn and winter 2021/22 the remaining silt will be sent to the landfill site.

If all goes according to the DoI’s schedule, the draining pool at Ballatessan Farm will be demolished and the field reinstated over the spring and summer 2022.