The spill came from a parking lot at the corner of 46th St and Godfrey (A.K.A. Minnehaha Parkway). The hot oil, more like a thinned tar, is used to coat asphalt before graveling (top coating) pavement. In this case, it was Bituminous Roadways using the parking lot as a staging area for work to be done at the Minnesota Veteran's Home on the river bluff. The spill, supposedly due to an overheated boiler, was being cleaned up by BR when the fast 1.5" of rain made any attempt at containment impossible.
Those storm drains empty into a larger storm collecter that in turn, empties into the Mississippi a dozen yards or so downstream from the mouth of Minnehaha Creek. I've been told it was (at least) the Channel 5 news chopper that spotted the yellow floats in the lagoon and incorrectly associated them with a cleanup effort. As Annie Young correctly pointed out, those battered floats were part of the boom placed several years ago to stop erosion during the Longfellow Gardens re-grading project from washing into the creek. Obviously, the oil didn't flow upstream for nearly a mile and up over two waterfalls. However, because of calls from several concerned residents, I walked both sides of the creek anyway, from Minnehaha Parkway to the Glenn. I'm not an expert, but I could find no signs of any oil, new or old, on algae, the reeds, or the riprap. Just the black stains from high water earlier. On the other hand, over the years, I've noticed a petroleum sheen trapped in deadwaters along the creek after a heavy rain. In this case it's not surprising considering the extended dry and hot period that rain ended. Many, many storm sewers collect runoff from streets, parking lots and properties along its journey from Grey's Bay. I too saw the heron in the lagoon, and the shy river otter playing. Doug Walter Nokomis East Dorie Rae Gallagher wrote: According to my sources yesterday, the spill came from the Vets Hospital through the storm sewers from the heavy rains on Sat. They said the news channel had the wrong information about the location Where the booms are located, the water does have an oily sheen that the Environmental Dept.was looking into which could have washed in from the roads and settled on the algae due to the rain. REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
