A major effort to clean up Onondaga Lake is underway, following decades of destructive behavior by nearby factories, the Wall Street Journal reports. The effort, overseen by Fortune 100 company Honeywell International, is expected to last five years. By the end of the five year period, two million cubic yards of contaminated sediment will be pumped out of the lake. The cleanup will be the largest lake dredging project in the history of New York state.

The project will replace the soiled minerals with clean fill material, which will be varied in order to provide proper habitats for different species of fish.

Onondaga Lake was subject to much abuse over the past century, having been used as a dumping ground for chemical industries. One of the greatest offenders was Allied Chemical Co., which merged with Honeywell in 1999. Onondaga Lake was added to the federal Superfund list of hazardous waste sites in 1994.