Emergency environmental response needed

MPCA brings in WCEC to handle sealcoating spill in Mountain Lake

 

“This isn’t the type of story that I like to call you to have you report on,” states Mountain Lake Mayor Mike Nelson, “but it is important to be open and explain the situation to the public.”

Nelson is referring to a pollution control emergency environmental response being conducted today (Friday, August 5), to be extended into Saturday, August 6, by a Haz-Mat team from WCEC (West Central Environmental Consultants, Inc.) Emergency Spill Response. The clean-up work is being conducted at the storm sewer outlet – including plunge pool and rip rap – into Mountain Lake. Assisting in rock removal is S & J Excavating.

The emergency response was due to the washing away of sealcoating into the city’s storm sewer system. According to Nelson, city crews and workers from the Cottonwood County Highway Department were working jointly in a cost-saving measure on Thursday, August 4, to sealcoat 8th Street, 9th Street and Prince Street in the City of Mountain Lake. A series of rain systems moved across the area throughout the course of the day, with 1/4″ to 1/2″ of rainfall recorded. The rains washed the sealcoating (a bituminous liquid mixture that is applied to asphalt) down storm drains and through culverts into the city’s storm sewer system, and on to where it is expelled near the lake.

“Fortunately, crews from WCEC say that the rip rap rocks and cattails at the outlet’s lake entrance filtered most of the sealcoating,” explains Nelson.

Dave, from WCEC, echoes Nelson’s statement that the sealcoating did not reach the lake. “We had a boat on the lake this afternoon (Friday) for two-and-one-half hours, and found that it had not extended into it.”

The crews completing the sealcoating were mandated to report the issue to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). The MPCA was in Mountain Lake earlier today (Friday) researching the situation, and, because of the wildlife and shorebirds that frequent the lake, the agency hired WCEC to take care of the situation.

Affected rocks in the rip rap are being removed and taken away in dumpsters to be analyzed to determine safe storage procedures and the appropriate storage sites. In addition, the plunge pool is being swept and decontaminated.

 

 

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STAFF FROM WCEC and S &J Excavating remove affected rocks that make up the rip rap that form a breakwater for the city’s storm sewer outlet. Sealcoating done on 8th Street, 9th Street and Prince Street was washed into the city’s storm sewer system by a series of rain systems that moved across the area yesterday (Thursday, August 4).

 

 

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THE ELIMINATED ROCKS are placed on a black plastic tarp and eventually into dumpsters to be taken away to an appropriate disposal site.

 

 

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AN EXAMPLE OF the sealcoating residue left on the rocks of the rip rap after rains washed the sealcoating into the storm sewer system.

 

 

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ONE DUMPSTER IS full, and a second awaits affected materials to be loaded into it.

 

 

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THE TEAM FROM WCEC sweeps through the plunge pool with nets in beginning clean-up work.

 

 

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SEALCOATING WAS WASHED into the storm sewer by the rains that fell. Some of that residue remains in the storm sewer.

 

 

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ANOTHER PHOTOGRAPH OF the sealcoating residue left behind as rainstorms washed the covering off the streets and into the storm sewer.

 

 

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PRINCE STREET WAS one of the streets sealcoated, and the rains sent the overlay into the storm sewers and through this culvert into a holding pond near Mountain Lake Christian.
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