Bricktown Canal to be drained

[Karried]

Bricktown Canal to be drained for two-week cleaning work

If you want to take a relaxing stroll along the waters of the Bricktown Canal, do it today.
Otherwise, for a couple of weeks, there won't be any water to look at.
Workers will start draining the canal today for a routine cleaning. The canal's water should be gone, and crews will start cleaning the bottom of the canal by Thursday, said Oklahoma City Parks and Recreation Department spokeswoman Kristy Yager.
The Bricktown Canal will remain empty for about two weeks while workers use heavy machinery to clear out sludge and debris from the bottom of the mile-long canal.
Greg Crotchett, who supervises Bricktown Canal maintenance for the city, told The Oklahoman in September that the last time the canal was drained about two years ago, workers scraped out 6 inches to a foot of sludge from its floor.
The East Basin of the Oklahoma River - located between Eastern and Western avenues -- will also start draining today for repairs to a stone wall, according to a news release.
The East Basin will be dry for about 45 days.

[Patrick]

It's about time. The canal hasn't been drained for several years now, and it shows. I can't imagine how much trash and dirt is lining the bottom.

[Patrick]

The East Basin will be dry for about 45 days.

Probably longer if we don't get any rain.

[Doug Loudenback]

I claim 1st dibs on collecting the change!

[venture]

What ever happened to the idea of coloring it? Heck even some blue coloring people use in their ponds, or aquashade, would be a benefit. The green, lake colored water is such a turn off.

[fromdust]

What ever happened to the idea of coloring it? Heck even some blue coloring people use in their ponds, or aquashade, would be a benefit. The green, lake colored water is such a turn off.

wasnt it blue for a while when it first opened? i cant really remember since im used to the putred(?) green.

[Stinger]

What ever happened to the idea of coloring it? Heck even some blue coloring people use in their ponds, or aquashade, would be a benefit. The green, lake colored water is such a turn off.

I think the natural green color rather than the blue is to discourage people from taking a dip. Seriously, I've heard that.

[Keith]

I claim 1st dibs on collecting the change!

I claim first dibs on all the jewelry that is found .

[Midtowner]

I have no problem with the current (or former) color. No complaints whatsoever.

As long as they keep it flowing.

[Karried]

Thank God it's not yellow

[Midtowner]

Thank God it's not yellow

Reminds me of a book I read once... The Yellow River -- by I.P. Freely.


:tweeted:

[Keith]

What’s at the bottom of the Bricktown Canal?

By Bryan Dean
The Oklahoman

Most of the Bricktown Canal’s walls and base are concrete. And most of its water comes from fire hoses.


But when city workers drained the canal this week for the first time in three years, they found it’s hard to keep nature’s hands off even the most artificial creations.

As the water level lowered and the canal began to look more like a muddy Carolina swamp, workers found about a dozen fish flapping around in the shallow trickle of water that remained.

“Some of them were fairly small,” said Greg Crotchett, canal supervisor for the city Parks department. “Some of them were up to eight inches in length and probably a couple of pounds.”

It’s easy to determine the source of most of the items workers cleaned out of the canal.

From trash, keys and sunglasses routinely dropped into the canal by passers-by to a skateboard, tables and chairs from a Bricktown restaurant and a BMX-style bicycle - people usually are to blame.

People might also have dumped fish into the canal, but the more likely candidates are birds, city fisheries biologist Bob Martin said.

“They could have eggs on their feet,” Martin said. “They could have small fish - fingerlings - in their feet and they fly over water and they wiggle loose or are dropped.”
However the fish made their way to the canal, they weren’t going to last long in the little water that remained once it was drained.

Workers took the fish to the Bricktown Bass Pro Shops, where they are being cared for by the store staff, said Jill Devereaux, Bass Pro promotions manager.
“We have them in our holding tanks above our aquarium,” Devereaux said. “We are going to hold them and feed them. We will keep them in quarantine for 90 days.”
Once the 90 days are up, the larger fish will go in the store’s aquarium.
The smaller fish will be released into the pond in front of the store.

Crotchett said the city cleans the canal periodically to keep the water from getting too dirty.

“From all the dust in the air and all the construction to the debris and leaf litter, it makes it difficult to keep the water as clean as we’d like,” Crotchett said.

Once the canal is drained, tractors equipped with brushes and brooms get busy. Workers use construction equipment to remove large items.

“When we get all the large debris out, we bring in fire hoses and hose the walls,” Crotchett said.

The maintenance was unlucky for Ashley Welch of Duncan and Bobbie McCracken of Lawton, who came to Bricktown Wednesday to enjoy the canal and were surprised to find it empty.

“We were going to ride the boats,” McCracken said.

Oklahoma Water Taxi is storing its boats in a warehouse while the canal is cleaned, said manager Chad Huntington.

“The timing is pretty good for us to be able to do some off-season work on the boats including touching up paint,” Huntington said.

Huntington said the cleaning is certainly necessary. He wasn’t surprised at many of the things workers found in the canal, including the fish.

“We’ve known for a couple of seasons now that there are fish in the canal,” Huntington said. “We had seen them ourselves through the murky water. We could tell some of them were rather large.”

[writerranger]

I read there is three feet(!) of sludge and gunk under there. No telling what they might find!

[fromdust]

I read there is three feet(!) of sludge and gunk under there. No telling what they might find!

i think the canal is only about 4 ft deep. so one of those little boats could sink and no one would ever find it, huh.

[metro]

I saw those pictures, that trash is ridiculous! It needs a good cleaning, too bad we're having unseasonably warm weather when they are doing it

[Keith]

I saw those pictures, that trash is ridiculous! It needs a good cleaning, too bad we're having unseasonably warm weather when they are doing it

I just can't imagine people throwing their trash in the canal, especially when there are trash receptacles all around. I guess it is what you would call laziness.

[Karried]

There goes plans for my moonlight dip!

Yuk!

[Curt]

It's just amazing what people will throw into the water sometimes, and what others lost. I see two cell phones, LOL.

[writerranger]

One of the canal business owners told TV news that a lot of that stuff gets blown in by heavy winds. He says he's seen lots of stuff get blown right off the many patios along the canal and into the water. He said most of that stuff isn't from people trashing the canal, but from the wind. I would like to think that's true. It makes sense too with the kind of wind that can get whipped up down there.

[keving]

That is cool that Bass Pro is going to care for the found fish.

One thing I like about the San Antonio River Walk is that you see fish in the water. But, I've heard they have had snake problems in the past.

Too bad the geography is right to have the canal be joined to the Oklahoma River.

Does anyone know the difference in elevation between the Bricktown canal and the Oklahoma River?

[metro]

I saw the fish. They even found a living lobster in the canal!!! Channel 9 did a report on it this morning, chairs, trashcans, skateboards, clothes, cell phones, pagers, watches, rings, money, etc. I can understand trash and some things blowing into the river by Oklahoma River, and people dropping their cell phone off the boat or something, but some things just make you wonder what people are thinking.

[Karried]

I also thought it was really cool that Brass Pro stepped up and took the fish - I would have been really upset if they would have just left them to die.

It's a small thing but it was a nice thing to do.

[OKCNDN]

I watched the NEWS9 report also. They had a lady on there who was looking at some utensils, spoons, forks, knives, and she said "yup these are all ours" and was setting them in a stack.

I hope that she isn't going to wash them off and use them again in her restaurant!!! Yuck!!!

I never thought about how often they clean that thing out. You would think that they could drag the canal once or twice a year. I think that thing should be cleaner. You don't want to see it all green with pond scum.

[metro]

I saw that too, I doubt they will use all the silverware but I could be wrong. It's actual silver so they would have to clean it throughly anyways. But after the media attention I doubt they will. They can't drag the canal to clean it, they must drain it, therefore they do it once a year or less. The chemicals as well as the fountains, Oklahoma wind, and the boats keep the water moving enough where pond scum isn't really an issue.

[Luke]

I'm not sure the elevation differences, but I know they're different. Not more than 10 or 15 feet I think.

This is where a little creativity could be used...

http://www.schools.ash.org.au/daptohigh/kramp.jpg

Just an idea...