Crews Install Dome To Catch Oil From Bottom Of Lake Cda

Fri., Dec. 22, 2000

From Staff Reports

Idaho Transportation Department and Kootenai County Fire Department crews spent a chilly Thursday splashing around in Lake Coeur d’Alene off Higgens Point.

The crews were installing a dome to catch oil oozing from heavy equipment on the lake bottom.

A bulldozer and an earth mover were buried on the bottom after falling into the lake during construction of Interstate 90 in 1990.

The cap is about 7 or 8 feet high and 5 feet across, said Keith McConnell, a hazardous materials technician with the Kootenai County Fire Department.

McConnell and another firefighter donned dry suits to assist ITD as divers moved the cap into position over the lake bottom. The cap is not in place yet; lake silt stirred up by Thursday’s operation needs to settle before crews move back in.

The cap - balanced on concrete legs - will catch oil as it floats up and into a cylinder at the top of the dome, McConnell said.

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Crews Install Dome To Catch Oil From Bottom Of Lake Cda

Jesse Tinsley

Jim Meehan

Molly Quinn

Rob Curley

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