Rain Sweeps Oil Spill Into South Twin Lake in Robbinsdale
Cleanup crews worked overnight in Robbinsdale to clean up an oil spill that was swept into South Twin Lake.
According to the Robbinsdale Fire Department, an above-ground oil tank at the Sipe and Gray Oil Co. and Shell station at 42nd Avenue and West Broadway began to leak on Friday afternoon.
“We guesstimate right now there was a crack down at the bottom of the tank,” said Mike Powell, assistant fire chief. “I have to physically get eyes on that, but that is where we figure it started.”
Rain swept an oil spill into a storm sewer, where it drained into South Twin Lake in Robbinsdale.
Rain Swept Oil Spill into Storm Sewer
The Robbinsdale Fire Department responded to the spill and undertook efforts to contain it.
“We quickly applied Floor-Dry, containment booms, [and] we were able to contain it at the site,” Powell said. “Shortly after we had everything contained, the torrential rains hit [and] broke through out dike, broke through some of our booms.”
The rain swept the oil into a nearby storm sewer. Water from the storm sewers drains into South Twin Lake.
An environmental cleanup contractor worked with city employees to clean the oil that drained out of the sewer.
“They use an absorbent pad or an absorbent boom, which will absorb all the hydrocarbons in the oil and they won’t absorb the water,” Powell said.
According to Powell, the cleanup efforts have protected the lake from any lasting damage.
“The lake looks really well,” he said. “The contractor has done a great job of absorbing nay of the remaining oil that’s on the top. And there are no long-lasting effects to the lake, the ecology of the lake or the shoreline.”
Powell said that any remaining oil in the lake will biodegrade over the next several days.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has monitored the incident.
