Town councillors were treated to a demonstration of the AquaRake at Bronte Harbour on Thursday.

The device, designed and built by the Oakville company Erectoweld, essentially works like a steam shovel that can pick up debris on the harbour bottom.

"This one will reach 12-feet down," said Frank Bollinger, president of Erectoweld, who was present for the demonstration.

"They would use a small barge, that would be custom built for this, and they would dump the material that they dig out into the barge. The barge would be bottom unloading, so when it's full, they would take it over to the travel-lift, lift it with the travel-lift, a dump truck would go underneath and the barge would be unloaded."

The build up of silt at the bottom of Oakville's harbours is a major problem that must be dealt with every seven or eight years.

To not remove the silt means the harbour runs the risk of becoming too shallow to be used, however, as Bronte Harbour Master Robert MacKay points out the current process is not cheap.

"We bring in a big dredger and they basically work all winter," he said.

"The last time was at a cost of $1.3 million."

Bollinger noted the AquaRake demonstrated on Thursday could be purchased for less that $200,000,s although the Town is also exploring the possibility of renting or contracting the device when needed.

"It sure works," said Ward 1 Councillor Ralph Robinson, as he watched the AquaRake in action.

Besides dredging the harbour, Robinson also sees potential for the AquaRake to be used to combat Oakville's coastline algae problem.

"We did try the mechanical equipment a few years ago, but it was expensive and it didn't work too well. We're taking it out by hand now with pitchforks and such, but it comes back in," he said.

"Now we have this new potential piece of equipment that might very well be the answer, I don't know. I am interested and it seems to work well."

As the councillor watched the device pulled shovelful after shovelful of dark muddy silt from the depths of the harbour.

At one point it accidentally grabbed hold of a submerged shopping cart and log, which it lifted into the air in a display of its power.

While the demonstration was impressive Robinson voiced concerns about the small size of the AquaRake's shovel, which he feared would take too long to dredge the entire harbour.

Bollinger pointed out that larger versions of the AquaRake can be built.

Having seen what the AquaRake can do, councillors will continue to mull over whether it is right for use in Oakville and if it is, in what capacity the Town will use it.

Erectoweld has been making devices such as the AquaRake since 1982 and has shipped them to 32 countries around the world.

Bollinger noted that the device demonstrated in Oakville on Thursday has already been sold to Singapore, with a similar model sold to Mexico only months earlier.