After contaminated sediment is dredged from the river it is pumped through a pipeline anchored along the bottom of the river to the Green Bay Processing Facility.  There it goes through several processing steps before being shipped to a landfill.  (Click here for a more detailed look at the dewatering and filter cake processing.)

Sand removal

The first step for processing the sediment is to remove the sand and coarser material.  Much of this sand will be used without further treatment at the processing site for fill or potentially off site as fill or other uses. 

Filter pressing

The remaining finer grained sediment is pumped to the filter presses, which squeezes the water out and produces a "filter cake." 

• The Green Bay Processing Facility houses eight of the world's largest membrane filter presses. 
• Each press has a capacity of 600 cubic feet per cycle and measures 59 feet tall (on their supports) and 70 feet long.
• The presses were manufactured by Andritz AG, headquartered in Austria. 
• More than 1,500 filter plates are used in the eight presses.  The plates were made by LENSER Filtration GmbH + Co. in Germany

Water treatment

The water removed from the sediment slurry is treated through a series of filters.  The treated water us used in the processing facility or returned to the river.

Truck loading and disposal

The filter cake is stored inside the facility and loaded onto trucks inside the facility.  The trucks are washed before leaving the building and are fully covered as they take the filter cake to Hickory Meadows landfill in Calumet County.  A small amount of filter cake will come from sediment containing higher levels of PCBs.  This filter cake is transported to an out-of-state landfill that is licensed for disposal of such materials.