An oil spill on the lake?
An oil spill on the lake?
State, feds, Friends, edge toward a plan
By JILL DENNING GACKLE
Oil and water don’t mix.
The conclusion is simple, the solution isn’t.
When the Friends of Lake Sakakawea board of directors met Friday with state and federal agency officials, there were far more questions than answers. The answers are some that the state and federal government are trying to develop in the event of an oil spill on Lake Sakakawea.
Terry Fleck, Friends chairman, said, “We need to understand the volume of oil that is produced and acknowledge that an oil spill may happen.”
Fleck and the board members are encouraging the state and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to develop an oil spill protection plan for Lake Sakakawea and the Missouri River system.
Todd Lindquist, Corps operations manager at Riverdale, said the Corps has considered the risk of oil entering the lake or river from its operations. The Corps risks of spills are associated with large electrical equipment located at the Garrison power plant. They have large electrical transformers that are oil filled, for cooling purposes, and oil circuit breakers in the switchyard. This equipment places about 100,000 gallons of oil close to the river.
