Advertisement
Officials were notified of the spill Friday but still were not certain Saturday how much fuel the partially submerged vessel leaked into the river.
Stan Kalinoski, a Minnesota Pollution Control Agency emergency response official, estimated that the leakage was 100 to 130 gallons — about half of the maximum capacity of the boat's two 130-gallon tanks.
But Don Evanson, co-owner of American Plumbing, said 25 gallons was a closer figure.
The boat had not been used for two years and the tanks should not have been full, Kalinoski said.
He hopes to have the spill under control by this afternoon. "It's not a huge spill, but it is time consuming," he said. "There is no real easy answer how to do this."
Evanson said an employee reported the incident Thursday afternoon. Evanson then notified several agencies about the spilling fuel as a precaution. "We felt we could properly contain it ourselves," Evanson said.
But authorities felt oversight was necessary. "I felt they needed an environmental contractor," Kalinoski said.
VANDALS AT WORK?
American Plumbing workers on the scene Saturday said they believed vandalism was the reason the boat sank because some shore-side windows were broken.
Evanson also suspected vandalism because of previous damage in the area. "We've experienced terrible vandalism at that site," he said.
Evanson said Saturday he had not notified any law enforcement agencies of the suspected vandalism.
In April, Winona Port Authority allowed American Plumbing to remain in the commercial harbor after being 13 months behind in payments. Evanson also was cited for debris and a partially sunken barge at the site. The barge had been docked for re-decking and repairs, Evanson said in April.
No firm answers could be given about the boat's demise until the it is removed from the water, Kalinoski said.
CLEAN UPS AND OUTS
An oil clean-up — no matter how small — is no easy task.
Kalinoski was joined in Winona's commercial harbor Saturday by employees from Bay West Inc., an independent emergency spill response and industrial cleaning service from St. Paul. Coast Guard officials also stopped by survey the clean-up.
Their first job on the scene was keeping the fuel from spreading into the channel. Most of the spill was contained by scraping fuel from the top of the ice and putting it into containers for proper disposal, Kalinoski said.
American Plumbing employees then used chain saws to cut through the one-foot ice to put "sausage booms" — petroleum-based absorbers — in to soak up any fuel floating on top of the water. "Skirt booms," chains and buoys wrapped in plastic were put under the ice to act as a dam to control fuel flow under the ice.
Those skirt booms might remain until spring, Kalinoski said.
"We've picked up quite a bit of fuel already," Kalinoski said Saturday afternoon. "You're never going to get it all."
This was the same method a fuel spill in Nov. 13, 2002, was contained when 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel dumped after an automatic shut-off valve failed when a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers barge was fueling.
Contact reporter Brian Krans at 453-3541 or news@winonadailynews.com.
