GRANVILLE — A popular trout stream in a Washington County village will be dredged later this year under the state Superfund program to remove coal pollution left behind from the gaslight era.

A $15.1 million project calls for dredging the Mettawee River in Granville to remove coal tar toxins that leaked into the river from a former gas plant that once helped light the small village. The plant closed in the mid-1940s after operating for five decades.

A popular kayaking destination, the 65-mile-long Mettawee travels through Washington County from Vermont before emptying into Lake Champlain near Whitehall. It runs through the village, which is now home to about 2,600 people.

About 13,100 cubic yards of contaminated river bottom sediments — equivalent to more than 900 dump truck loads — will be dredged out for later disposal in a hazardous waste facility, according to 2014 plans filed with the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Work could start late this year or early next year.

Underground contamination from the former gas works spread to the nearby Granville Little League fields across the river. There, about 36,300 cubic yards of tainted soil — equivalent to about 2,600 dump truck loads — will be dug up and removed.

The property was contaminated with coal tar, a "dark, oily liquid" waste from the gasification of coal that contains a number of toxic chemicals. According to the DEC cleanup plan, "over the years, coal tar has leaked from (the former gas plant) and ... spread off site."

An underground plume of coal tar spread north under about four acres of the site, and west under the Mettawee and beneath the Little League fields.

"Although this contamination does not pose a risk of exposure to humans or wildlife under current conditions, exposures could occur in the future if the riverbed conditions were significantly disturbed by major flooding, erosion or construction activities," according to the DEC cleanup plan.

Part of the plan also calls for the collection of underground coal tar from 30 surface extraction wells, as well as the injection of chemicals underground to stabilize any remaining pollution and keep it from spreading.

Work will be done by the current owner of the 10-acre site, the utility company New York State Electric & Gas.

"DEC and NYSEG worked with the municipality and (the environmental nonprofit) Trout Unlimited to ensure that the project minimizes disruptions to both the Little League season and the trout fishery," DEC said in a prepared statement issued Thursday.

The Mettawee is classified by DEC as prime trout habitat. The state is also consulting with Trout Unlimited and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to restore "the best possible fish habitat in the riverbed after remediation is complete," according to the DEC statement.

Attempts to reach officials from the village and NYSEG, which has an operations center on part of the property, were not successful.