February 1994
the monthly newsletter for people who live, work or play on the Upper Mississippi River
Accidents Waiting to Happen Preparing for the Big Spill By Pamela Eyden
Vol. 2, No. 2
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Future B &B Floats Into St. Paul By Bill McAuliffe
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At 1:05 a.m. on July 8, 1991, three engines pulled a 120-car freight train south along the west bank of the Mississippi River. Just north of Fountain City, Wis., the brakeman saw that the embankment had washed away at the edge of the track. He applied the emergency brake, but as the train passed over the washed-out area the track bed collapsed. The third engine and 14 rail cars plunged into the river, hitting a barge and a towboat, while the second engine and 15 more cars derailed. A fire started in a refrigerator car loaded with butter and spread to other cars. Hazardous materials were in at least one of the cars. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the pilot of the towboat had lost control of the tow and gotten stuck in the river bank. While trying to push the barges back into the channel, turbulance from the tow boat propellers undercut the river bank and washed away the track bed.
Hundreds of millions of tons of hazardous material are carried by rail, barge, pipeline and truck on, under and near the Upper Mississippi River every year. Everyone who has studied the situation agrees that a major spill could threaten public safety and destroy river ecosystems. They also agree that a major spill is a distinct possibility, for which neither industries nor government agencies are prepared. Planning for all possible spill scenarios is nearly impossible because there are so many variables - what is spilled and how much; the weather, season and rate of river flow; whether the spill occurs in a backwater, on the Main Channel or near a city. "A spill on the river poses a unique problem," said Ron Kozel, Environmental Specialist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. "It's a big river, and it moves fast. It flows through a lot of remote, rural areas where access is
(Spill continued on page 3)
Soon a new bed and breakfast in st. Paul will offer a gently rocking retreat for river lovers and seekers of the urban outback. Tom Welna, a key operative for recently-departed St. Paul Mayor Jim Scheibe! and a long-time houseboat resident, wants to transform a 48-year-old defunct towboat into a floating bed and breakfast. He believes it will be the only one of its kind along the entire Mississippi River. And, while talk of a riverfront amphitheater or a new Science Museum of Minnesota remains just talk, Welna's project is already in place, even if it is, to most observers, just a blind, rusted hulk moored in the shadow of the Lafayette Bridge. "We're going to set the tone for development along the river," Welna predicted. "It's development that's related to the river, it's human scale, and it didn't cost $20 million." Welna believes his boat is the MV Covington. He knows it was built in 1946 by Nashville Bridge as something of a post-war victory statement - bigger, stronger, faster than its (B & B continued on page 2)