Bad News for Everyone

[fishin58]

The fire at Industrial Plating in Wahpeton Monday has now affected the RED. Fisherman reported a white foam coming up the hole. Also it was seen where pools of the ick were on top of the ice. Fargo has switched to the Sheyenne for there water needs. I hope this is minor.

[DEADhead]

That totally sucks. I like how the news totally blew the whole deal off and said that it was diluted enough so it shouldn't be a big deal. nickel and cadmium can never be diluted enough to be safe....

[fishgutz77]

Plating solutions are some of the deadliest concauctions around they will never get the heavy metals out. 90% are acid based and will kill and sicken on contact. this may affect spawing all the way to the dam. farther I wouldn't speculate. lets hope the big cats are tough.

[Scoot]

That really sucks! The title of your post seems accurate- that does suck for everyone. I totally agree with Dead- the news sort of said "ah, no big deal".

[Ed Carlson]

I agree, they best do EVERYTHING they can NOW to clean it up. Not after the ice thaws into the system. Strong sportsman and concerned citzen comments are needed to the state to insure this action is taken!

[CANOPY SAM]

Has there been any additional news on this topic?

I'm not questioning anyone here, it's just hard to believe that such a potentially toxic spill would go quiet so quickly.

This could potentially threaten the ecosystem of a very, very large river.

Is it possible that some of the last few years mid-summer catfish die-offs seen on the upper reaches of the Red have been caused by similar situations?

[Barbelboy]

Son-of-a-gun. I was just gonna start fishing that portion of the red this year too! I'm gonna have in-laws that live in Wahp/Breck and I was gonna trailer the boat over when the little lady wanted to visit family. So you're saying the portion of the red between Wahp and Fargo is going to have "excess" heavy metals in it? I thought we were getting away from the theory of "the solution to pollution is dilution!" I guess i'll have to rethink some of my cat fishing plans. :-(

[Ed Carlson]

I'll try to get the scoop from the NDG&F and the MNDNR on what levels of concern we should expect from this spill.

Can't be good...yet it may be not as bad as we think. If it were the Gov would be down on them fast to do a Superfund Haz-Mat clean-up and containment.

I'll get back to you on it when I know more.

[DEADhead]

I don't think the gov has any clue of the extent/severity of the spill. I would like to think they would be on top of it, but with every agency dealing with squashed budgets, there's just not the man power to investigate everything these days....

I hope that it truly is not that bad....

[Fisherman For a Lifetime]

Holy Cow, here today is the first I heard about this !!!

[redtrucks]

The severity of the chemicals that actually got to the river was very small. The ND State Health Department has been in Wahpeton everyday since the morning of the fire and will continue to be here until the cleanup is complete. The discoloration of the ice was caused by a yellow food grade dye that was used in the plating process. The area where the water entered the river from the storm sewer system was cleaned up and tested for any cemical residue. The Fire Department used 1.1 million gallons of water to fight this fire and 99% of the water was contained in the storm sewer system and then into a holding pond. THe NDSHD tested the water in the pond and allowed the city to release the water into the river after the levels of chemicals were found to be below the acceptable levels allowed by the state.

The foaming of the water could be because they opened up the dam at White Rock.

[DEADhead]

good to see that NDSHD has been monitoring. Do you know if the EPA or MN PCA has been involved? I realize the fire happened in ND, but since the Red is a border water you'd think both agencies would be concerned with outcome and it's effects downstream.

[redtrucks]

The MPCA and the EPA have been contacted but right now it's under the jurisdiction of ND. There is really no sense in having two duplicate agencies monitoring the same thing. NDSHD is just as compentant as MPCA.

Just because nothing has been on the TV or in the newspaper lately does not mean that nothing is happening or the monitoring has stopped. The Govenor of ND was at the scene the day of the fire and back again last Wednesday.

The clean up at Industrial Plating will be on going for weeks. Almost all of the chemicals that were inside the building have been removed from the site to be neutralized and the disposed of. West Central Enviromental Resources from MN is in charge of the clean up and monitoring of the site. The site also has a dike built around it to contain any run off from melting and where run off has pooled it is being sucked up immediately. The facility is under 24 hour monoriting. There was a large quantity of chemicals in the building but suprisingly most of the containers where not compromised by the fire.

All parties involved in this issue have cooperated fully and are just as concerned about the enviroment. You have to remember when a situation happens like this at 2:30 AM it takes a while to get everything in to place. I can assure everyone that keeping the run off from reaching the river was a priorty from the minute the call came in.

[DEADhead]

redtrucks thanks for all the updates. It is appreciated.

 Originally Posted By: redtrucks

There is really no sense in having two duplicate agencies monitoring the same thing. NDSHD is just as compentant as MPCA.

Actually I hope the NDSHD is more competent than the MPCA. MPCA has had a bad track record the past few years. I know underfunding is a big part of it, and also a lot of political pressure. They have dropped the ball on a few issues here in MN. I hope the NDSHD isn't affected by similar pressures.