Operation Save a Duck and the Legacy of Minnesota's 1962-63 Oil Spills
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Operation Save A Duck AND THE LEGACY OF MINNESOTA’S 1962–63 OIL SPILLS Stephen J. Lee A canvasback duck immobilized by soybean oil near Hastings; thick oil trails in the Mississippi River near South St. Paul, April 1, 1963. Catastrophes often trigger Duck. These events spurred some of workers left for the evening, they advances in environmental protec- the state’s earliest legislative debate neglected to close the valve between tion. This was true in Minnesota in on controlling pollution to protect the pipeline and a large aboveground the winter of 1962–63, when more the environment. storage tank. They also forgot to than three million gallons of soybean The winter of 1962–63 was cold. open steam lines that kept the oil in oil spilled in Mankato and flowed On Friday, December 7, 1962, work- the pipeline warm and flowing.1 down the Minnesota River to join ers at the Richards Oil Company During the weekend, when even - more than one million gallons of plant on the Minnesota River in ing temperatures dipped below zero, industrial oil spilled in Savage. The Savage pumped “cutter” oil from rail the uninsulated, unheated pipe con- gooey mess killed an estimated cars into a storage tank through a tracted and broke in three places. 10,000 ducks near Red Wing and long, 10-inch-diameter steel pipe - Some one million gallons of oil, the Hastings and prompted Governor line. (Cutter oil is thin, like kerosene entire contents of the tank, drained Karl Rolvaag to activate the National or diesel fuel, and used to make from the broken pipeline over 30 Guard in the futile Operation Save a heavy oils pumpable.) When the acres of ground.2 105 Because the family-owned Agency or a state Pollution Control powerful force of escaping oil Richards plant was unstaffed during Agency, it was the Department of pushed the hull of the big tank back- the weekend, the spill was not dis- Health’s Water Pollution Control ward into five smaller tanks contain- covered until Monday morning. By Commission that requested ing another .5 million gallons of then, the oil was draining onto the Richards to halt the continuing oil salad oil. When the piping to these ice of the Minnesota River through drainage into the river. This was tanks broke, their contents amplified a culvert that pierced a dike built done after some delay, but by late the spill to about 3 million gallons.7 between the plant and the river. The March the ice had gone out and the Cars, homes, and businesses were culvert had a one-way flap valve that bulk of the oil had already moved surrounded by the pool. Several city prevented river water from flooding down the Minnesota River into the blocks flooded three feet deep in oil. the plant but allowed storm-water Mississippi.5 When the tank failed, Herbert Kurth, runoff—or oil—to pass through to Meanwhile, back in January, the boss of one group of employees the river. Oil spread downstream on another cold spell had settled over eating lunch huddled around a stove top of and under the ice.3 the Minnesota River valley. Over - in a nearby brick building, went to By the end of December, there night lows fell to -25° F. in Mankato, the door to investigate the bang that were numerous sightings of oil on home of Honeymead Products Com - sounded like rail cars coupling at too top of river ice. The downstream pany, the largest soybean-processing great a speed. He saw a 40- or 50- power plant at Black Dog reported plant in the world. Honeymead foot-tall storage tank riding toward that oily water was interfering with stored its soybean oil, which has the him on a wave of oil. Running to the its turbine condensers. Fresh snow- consistency of cooking oil, at a tem- back of the building, he kicked out a falls and poor access to the river perature of 50°–70° F. in large, window to enable employees to made it difficult to assess the scope aboveground storage tanks. One of escape. (He was reportedly cranky of the oiling, but a stretch of ice these steel tanks had been bought afterwards, because the employees three-to-four miles long contained a used in Texas, disassembled, and dove out the window first, leaving pool of oil. Game wardens and state reconstructed in Mankato. This 40- him behind in two feet of oil.) It was health-department staff tracked the foot-high, 100-foot-diameter, 3.4 “every man for himself,” recalled oil back to the Richards property.4 million-gallon-capacity tank had employee Edward Ward.8 Richards employees and owners been further modified by welding an Harvey (Choppy) Fortney was repeatedly denied any problems at 8-by-8-foot steel panel near its bot- driv ing a truck through the yard the plant beyond drips from leaking tom for entry and cleaning.6 when the tank burst. He saw the 30- pumps and routine, minor spillage. In severe cold, a phenomenon foot-high wave of yellow oil coming For a time, state officials were ex - called brittle fracture can cause the toward him and thought it was fire. pelled from the site. It was not until sudden collapse of steel tanks. In Propelled through the air above the March 18, 1963, that a plant owner addition, inserting a flat panel in the oil was a tank trailer that, along with admitted the million-gallon Decem - curved circumference creates mech - the oil, slammed Harvey’s truck into ber spill. He said that attempts to anical strains on the steel and welds. a pile of beams. The terrified, semi- pump up the oil had been made, but On the cold morning of January 23, conscious, and oily Fortney slipped only 2,000–10,000 gallons had been Honeymead’s reconstructed storage from rescuers’ grasps twice while he recovered. In this time before the tank failed, “unzipping” from the was being extricated from his truck.9 federal Environmental Protection upper corner of the square plate to Standing in the path of the oil the top of the tank. A tidal wave of wave were 300 to 400 barrels of 2.5 million gallons of crude soybean lecithin and other products. Harold oil washed over nearby tanks and Hartwell outran the oil but got hit by Stephen Lee is the emergency response supervisor of the Minnesota Pollution railroad tracks, flooding several a flying barrel. David Wilmes had Control Agency. blocks of southwest Mankato. The just left his post when it was deluged 106 Minnesota History Aerial view before the spill of Honeymead Products Company, the largest soybean-processing company in the world in 1963. The large tank at lower right ruptured, and its oil gushed into Mankato and the Blue Earth River. Summer 2002 107 by a wave of oil that piled barrels onto his work station. Co-workers frantically pulled barrels off the pile looking for Wilmes’s body until he reported in from the lab. Gerald Erkel and others were in the extraction building when the oil ripped off the doors and flooded it. Men climbed stairs and ladders to escape the churning wave, some of which came in through windows and stained rafters six stories above ground. Evelyn Herman watched from the window of her home near the plant as two loaded railcars, estimated to weigh 80 to 90 tons each, washed off the tracks, traveled about 300 feet, and plunged into the Blue Earth River. One railcar broke though the ice, allowing oil to drain directly into the water. Her house was surrounded by the oil, which quickly cooled to a (Above) The crumpled shell of a Honeymead tank with a damaged tank behind it; gooey, lardlike consistency. She and (below) lecithin drums and one of the railroad cars (at right) tossed by the tidal wave her children were ma rooned in the of oil toward the Minnesota River. house for several days. At the Man - kato sewage-treatment plant, em - ploy ees discharged raw sewage direct- ly into the Min ne sota River to prevent oil from gumming the works.10 About half of the 3.5 million gallons of oil spilled directly into the Blue Earth River. As for the rest, on the first day employees used graders and loaders to push oil off roads into ditches, so that it could eventually flow into the river. That practice was quickly halted by request of the De - partment of Health. Over the next few weeks Honeymead and city em - ployees continued to scrape, pump, and push the sticky mass of oil and debris. An estimated 700,000 to 800,000 gallons were recovered and pumped into railway tanker cars. Following common practice in the 108 Minnesota History Oil that spilled at Richards Oil Company in December 1962 and Honeymead Products Company in January 1963 flowed down the Minnesota River and into the Mississippi. 1960s, a large amount was carted off 22 and 28 discovered continuing As temperatures rose, oil in the and dumped in a ravine two miles dis charges of oil. On March 29 ob - debris Honeymead had dumped east of Rapidan, Minnesota, along servers reported the first oil-covered began to flow to the Le Sueur River, the Le Sueur River. Some recovered dead ducks south of St. Paul.12 then to the Blue Earth River, passing oil was fed to hogs.11 As serious spill problems became the Honeymead plant where it had apparent late in March, Minnesota’s originated, and finally to the Minne - About a month after the Water Pollution Control Com mis - sota River.