FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
November 7, 2005

DELAWARE OFFICIALS COMMISSION TWO ELLICOTT DREDGES;
NEW ELLICOTT DREDGE SALES TO THREE U.S. STATE GOVERNMENTS

Ellicott Dredges announces several significant new orders from three state governments in the USA, as well as for multiple U.S. federal government agencies.

Ellicott has delivered the final dredge of a previously announced precedent-setting four dredge order for the State of Delaware, a Series 670 "Dragon" named the "BROADKILL". The State has named its new MC-2000 Mud Cat™  the “INDIAN RIVER.”

Delaware Secretary of State Harriet Smith Windsor commissioned the "BROADKILL" and the “Indian River”  for Governor Ruth Ann Minner (who was unfortunately ill) at a formal ceremony on November 4^th , at the State’s newly dredged Indian River marina. John Hughes, the Secretary of Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources & Environment (DNREC) also officiated along with Robert Baldwin, Director of the State's dredging program. Minner’s remarks, delivered by Windsor, noted that “This marina serves as an excellent example of the benefits reaped by boaters in the state’s dredging program,” and that the Governor had also commissioned the State’s first two Ellicott dredges as a State legislator, including the 23 year old Series 370, the “Blue Hen,”  which is still operating. Windsor concluded that the Governor has always supported the State’s dredging program.

Hughes said, “These new, highly efficient and extremely portable Ellicott dredges, built by the oldest US dredging manufacturer, will enable us to restore Delaware waterways to higher habitat value. They have one environmentally progressive feature after another.” He elaborated on the objectives of the State’s dredging program (which has completed 140 projects since 1982) using its fleet of Ellicott dredges:

1 sediment and stormwater management and containment

2 maintaining navigational channels for recreational boaters to avoid sediment resuspension in the State’s generally shallow water bodies 

3 maintaining deepwater habitats for biodiversity

4 removing nutrient-laden sediment for pond and lake restoration

Series 670 "Dragon" Dredge "BROADKILL"
 under tow to job site in Delaware

New York State has ordered a special 14" (355 mm) cutter dredge for maintenance of the 363 mile (584 km) long world famous Erie Canal. The new dredge, costing about $2MM, will supplement an Ellicott Series 970 "Dragon" dredge delivered in 1981 and will replace a 1920's vintage Ellicott dredge, which is still working but will be retired when the new dredge is delivered in the summer of 2006.  The dredge will be equipped with biodegradable hydraulic fluid recently approved by the EPA.  This dredge will be custom-built to the customer's specifications and will have many special features such as its electronics system including a production metering system and Hypack dredge positioning system.

The State of Ohio has ordered a 10" (254 mm) swinging ladder dredge from Ellicott for the removal of silt from State-owned lakes and ponds to be delivered in January, 2006.  This will be the 6^th Ellicott dredge in Ohio's fleet.   The dredge will meet the tough EPA guidelines for diesel engine emission compliance.  The Series 460SL dredge is equipped with a traveling spud system featuring automatic dredge advance and retreat feature, and a complete control and monitoring system, with finger tip controls, interfaced to a PLC for data logging , diagnostics, and  programmable functions.  The dredge has a Metso Thomas J-30 pump featuring Dodge tipple tech seals and adjustable wear clearance.

Other interesting new orders include a large parts order for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' hopper dredge "WHEELER", a 20" dredge for an African client to be delivered in 2006, a Series 370 dredge for a Corps of Engineers project filling geotubes along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and a Series 370 for resort beach development in the Dominican Republic.

Series 1170 Delivered to Middle East

In summer 2005 Ellicott delivered a 16" (406 mm) Series 1170 to a customer in the United Arab Emirates.

Series 1170 "Dragon" Dredge "EMBARKA"
Operating in the United Arab Emirates

Dredges for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 
PCB Superfund Project

Ellicott's Mud Cat™ Division has just delivered two new state-of-the-art MC-2000 Mud Cat auger dredges to Sevenson Environmental for its PCB removal work for the EPA in New Bedford, R.I.

According to a U.S. EPA release, the dredged material is pumped directly into a floating pipeline connecting each dredge to EPA’s desanding building approximately one mile down river. At the desanding facility, coarse material is separated from the finer sediment producing a daily total of about 50 tons of sand. A submerged pipeline carries the remaining sediment 1.4 miles further down the harbor to the newly constructed dewatering facility. At the dewatering facility, specialized presses squeeze the excess water out of the sediment which will result in about 280 tons of dewatered sediment per day. Approximately 600,000 gallons of water are being treated each day to stringent standards and then discharged back into the harbor.

Approximately 25,000 cubic yards of sediment will be dredged this year. To ensure that the dredging operation is being performed safely, the EPA is conducting both a water quality and an air quality monitoring program. The results of the airborne PCB monitoring can be reviewed at the project web site at:  http://www.epa.gov/ne/nbh/ <../../../nbh/index.html .

In total, the LWT and Ellicott Divisions of Baltimore Dredge Enterprises are on track to receive orders for more than 50 complete dredges in 2005, and the company's backlog is over $10MM.

For more information, contact:
Peter A. Bowe, President
Baltimore, MD 21230
Email:  pabowe@dredge.com
Ph: 410-545-0205
Cell: 410-302-9367
Ellicott Dredges is a Division  of Baltimore Dredges, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Baltimore Dredge Enterprises, LLC