Commissioners accept grant for fire exercise at former mine

Lincoln County Commissioners on Wednesday unanimously accepted federal grant funding to perform a countwide fire exercise at the former site of the W.R. Grace Mine.

The $25,000 grant was secured by Emergency Management Agency Deputy Director Lisa Oedewaldt. It will bring all county, state and federal agencies within Lincoln County for an orchestrated drill should there be a fire at the former mine site, also known as OU-3.

Oedewaldt actually wrote the grant nine months ago,  but county officials formally accepted it. Funding came from the Department of Homeland Security.

“We’ll write a plan from this excercise, which will be an annex to the county disaster plan that already includes an Emergency Operation (disaster) Plan for  for Flower Creek,  Lake Creek, Libby Dam and others,” Oedewaldt said.

Among the agencies that will participate in the exercise, for which a spring date has yet to be determined, are the Lincoln County Emergency Management Office, Sheriff’s Department, Department of Environmental Quality, the U.S. Forest Service, the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Lincoln County Department of Environmental Health, David Thompson Search & Rescue, Libby Police, Dr. Brad Black and the Department of Public Health.

The county has long been concerned about the consequences of a fire at the old mine site and the repercussions of smoke and soot as a result of burned, contaminated timber at the site.

“This exercise will address the downwind concerns,” Oedewaldt said. “We’re sort of thinking of a date in April or May.”