By Ben Olson
Reader Staff
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials are advising boaters to watch for additional debris in Lake Pend Oreille after a breach in a drift yard facility allowed some logs and debris to enter the lake.
The Corps gathers most debris from the Clark Fork before it enters the lake and stores it in the Clark Fork Drift Facility until it can be disposed. A piece of the log boom, a barrier of logs chained together to contain debris, failed late Tuesday, June 28, allowing 20-30 10-foot long by 1-foot diameter logs and some smaller debris to enter the upper lake.
“We dispatched a crew and temporarily patched the breach,” said Albeni Falls Dam Operations Project Manager Ryne Linehan. “We’re now focused on monitoring the structure and a permanent fix.”
Until the breach is fully repaired, the Corps advises boaters and the public to use caution, and be alert for logs and debris which can float just beneath the water.
While we have you ...
... if you appreciate that access to the news, opinion, humor, entertainment and cultural reporting in the Sandpoint Reader is freely available in our print newspaper as well as here on our website, we have a favor to ask. The Reader is locally owned and free of the large corporate, big-money influence that affects so much of the media today. We're supported entirely by our valued advertisers and readers. We're committed to continued free access to our paper and our website here with NO PAYWALL - period. But of course, it does cost money to produce the Reader. If you're a reader who appreciates the value of an independent, local news source, we hope you'll consider a voluntary contribution. You can help support the Reader for as little as $1.
You can contribute at either Paypal or Patreon.
Contribute at Patreon Contribute at Paypal