Westchester is taking a major step toward cleaning up county lakes with help from a new piece of equipment.

County Executive George Latimer says a mechanical harvester will be using a conveyor belt to clear lakes of water chestnuts – an invasive species that cuts off oxygen to species in the water.

Erin Cordiner, of the Westchester Parks Foundation, says they used to have to remove the water chestnuts by hand.

"We did that for about four weeks-worth of work with a lot of volunteers,” she says.

The new process should take about 10 days to complete. It was made possible through a $30,000 grant.