{"id":117127,"date":"2018-07-19T12:37:06","date_gmt":"2018-07-19T16:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=117127"},"modified":"2018-08-03T16:04:13","modified_gmt":"2018-08-03T20:04:13","slug":"recalling-the-1998-restoration-of-lake-andrews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2018\/07\/19\/recalling-the-1998-restoration-of-lake-andrews\/","title":{"rendered":"Recalling the 1998 restoration of Lake Andrews"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twenty years ago this month, Bates began a major restoration of the Lake Andrews area.<\/p>\n

First, the pond was drained by opening the sluice gate at the north end, near Russell Street. Then, bulldozers and backhoes removed 4,963 cubic yards of so-called dredge spoils, scraping the bottom to the base of marine clay.<\/p>\n

As the water level lowered day by day, all sorts of\u00a0treasures were revealed: a bowling ball, mangled bike, table, stereo set, desk, bed frame, chairs, tennis shoes, bottles, cans, three 30-pound snapping turtles (they were relocated to a nearby pond), and many overgrown goldfish (they met their maker).<\/p>\n

It had been 40 years since the pond was first excavated, and the accumulation of mud was deep, a fact that aquatic biologist and limnologist Scott Williams ’71 learned the hard way.<\/p>\n

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Bulldozers scrape the bottom of Lake Andrews down to its base of marine clay during the July 1998 restoration. (Marc Glass ’88\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

Williams was a consultant on the project, and late one afternoon during the dredging operation he spied one of the snapping turtles in the middle of the pond. Armed with his trapping gear and wearing hip waders, he headed out toward the snapper. But he never got there.<\/p>\n

A few yards from shore, he could move no more. “I was up to my thighs in muck.” He struggled for a bit, then scanned the shoreline for help. “No one was around,” he recalls. “Not a soul.”<\/p>\n

But then a truck stopped, and a man stepped out. “You’re stuck, aren’t you?” he asked. Yup, replied Williams. “Well, I can help you,” the man said.<\/p>\n

“I would’ve come out naked.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Could he ever. The Good Samaritan was also one of the heavy-machine operators. He mounted his idle excavator \u2014 a “monstrously big thing,” recalls Williams \u2014 and fired it up. All the while, Williams was thinking, “How is this going to work?”<\/p>\n

The operator expertly maneuvered his rig so it perched on the very edge of the pond, and extending the bucket to its full reach, just to where Williams could grab it.<\/p>\n

The huge bucket soon loomed directly and, from Williams’ stuck perspective, menacingly over his head. “All I can think is that if his rig toppled into the pond, I’m going to be driven 10 feet into the sediment.”<\/p>\n

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In 1998, the beloved Puddle’s massive makeover began with its complete draining.<\/h5>\n