The cleanup is intended to stabilize the mercury and prevent it from getting into nearby groundwater.The Environmental Protection Agency announced this week that a polluted creek near the former Mercury Refining Company plant in Colonie, Albany County, will be dredged for toxic mercury as part of a continuing project to clean the location, which was listed as a Superfund site over 20 years ago.

The Times Union reports that the section of the creek to be excavated is about 100 feet long by 15 feet wide by 2 feet deep, and the sediment retrieved from the creek will be dried and disposed of at an undisclosed off-site landfill.

Mercury contamination occurred as the company (as its name suggests) recovered, refined and marketed the substance at the plant from the mid-1950s to 1998. Tests of mercury levels in the area will continue for five years after the cleanup, and it was not clear from the EPA's statement whether the agency will be bearing the full costs of the cleanup or when work will start.