As it turns out, Mother Nature helped what might have been a more serious environmental problem.
The Illinois EPA, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Springfield Park District and, the Springfield Fire Department met Wednesday afternoon to discuss the environmental calamity that occurred when the Merlin’s Muffler shop caught fire earlier this week, causing oil to spill from storage containers, into the city’s sewer system, ending up as a slick on the Washington Park lagoons.
Authorities say because of the deluge of rain Springfield has experienced over the last couple of days, the oil is dissipating as it dilutes. Environmental cleanup operations are going on in the lagoon. They say the most of the cleanup should be completed by Friday or Saturday.
Jacques Nuzzo, program director for the Illinois Raptor Center says because of the timing of the fire, ducks and geese weren’t in the water so avoided being affected.
“I think you got really, really got lucky on this one,” says Nuzzo. “The ducks were on land because it was night. I haven’t seen any animal with anything more than a couple of drops of oil.”
Springfield Fire Marshal Chris Richmond says it appears the oil was properly stored but the heat of the fire melted the containers.
The park should re-open to vehicular traffic in the next few days.