Flooded City in Kansas Assesses Damage
Pastor Dale Morgan
Flooded City in Kansas Assesses Damage*
AP - Monday, July 9
COFFEYVILLE, Kan. - Residents were still not allowed to return to their
flooded homes Sunday because of high levels of fecal coliform bacteria
and an oil spill that coated houses and lawns in a slimy, smelly goo a
week ago.
Once officials finish searching 360 homes this week, residents will be
able to enter and take any items that might be salvageable, said Cindy
Price, a city spokeswoman.
Rivers in Kansas and Oklahoma have been receding from record flood
crests, revealing millions of dollars in damage to thousands of homes
and businesses, in addition to the 1,000 or so damaged in Texas.
A few showers returned to parts of waterlogged Texas on Sunday as divers
resumed searching the swollen Trinity River for a 26-year-old missing
since his raft capsized Friday near Fort Worth.
At least 17 deaths, most in Texas, have been blamed on storms and
flooding that have plagued the Southern Plains since early June.
In hard-hit Coffeyville, contractors and environmental officials are
considering options to clean up the 71,400 gallons of crude oil that
mixed with floodwater when the Verdigris River swelled over its banks
from torrential rain.
Officials had expected the flooding to stay below the levee, but the
river crested at about 4 feet over the barrier. As floodwater rose,
workers rushed to secure the Coffeyville Resources refinery in six to
seven hours. Normally, it takes 24 hours to shut it down.
While the Environmental Protection Agency investigates what caused the
leak, a federal lawsuit alleges that the flood was predictable and that
the refinery should have been shut down sooner.
Andrew Hutton, a Wichita lawyer involved in the lawsuit against the
refinery, said more than 200 properties "have been destroyed by these
uncontrolled waterborne poisons."
Refinery spokesman Steve Eames declined to discuss the lawsuit.
"We're really more focused on the efforts to help the community recover
and help get the operations going and helping our neighbors," he said.
He said the refinery has brought in contractors who helped clean up oil
spills during Hurricane Katrina.
The company has set up a toll-free number for residents to report oil
damage. Adjusters with the refinery's insurer will be dispatched to
inspect the damage. The refinery has pledged that it will clean or
repair damage.
"It's really something we have to and want to do," Eames said.
Lawyers for the refinery and the EPA were discussing what steps would be
required to clean up the mess, said Rich Hood, an EPA spokesman.
The only way to clean heavily contaminated soil is to replace it with
good soil, he said. Under less contamination, soil can be aerated so
that the oil is worked in and allowed to degrade with biological agents
such as enzymes, nutrients or microorganisms. Adding certain bacteria
and fertilizers can hasten the process.
The oil traveled downriver into Oklahoma, where it threatened to reach
Lake Oologah, one source of drinking water for Tulsa. The EPA installed
an 1,800-foot boom across the river in northern Oklahoma to soak up the
remnants of the spill.
Skylar McElhaney, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of
Environmental Quality, did not returned phone messages about the spill
cleanup left Sunday by The Associated Press.