Monday, September 16, 2019

Carnival at Chief Sarcoxie Days contaminates water, DNR contacted

(From the City of Sarcoxie)

A message from the Mayor

I want to address a serious problem that occurred with some of the carnival equipment during this past Chief Sarcoxie Days festival.

The carnival relies on a very large diesel generator to power up their rides and midway.

During this weekend’s event, the generator developed a mechanical problem that led to it overheating. To keep the rides going, the operator used a water hose to spray the generator’s radiator to cool it. 

Water from this spray ran out the back of the trailer, flowed across asphalt, and ran directly into Swifty. Thankfully, several citizens reported this issue. 








Once informed, we worked with Chief Sarcoxie Days Committee representatives and carnival management to ensure the carnival stopped the flow into Swifty and contained all spray.

Late Saturday afternoon, we learned the generator had not been repaired and the carnival was spraying the generator down again to keep rides going. We also discovered they had once again allowed contamination to get in to Swifty. 

Shortly after that, the Sarcoxie Fire Department got involved. While not equipped to handle this kind of situation, Chief Sivils was able to locate supplies to install a barrier to prevent contamination from going downstream and absorbent pads to ensure no more contamination could get to Swifty. We then continuously monitored the situation until 10 pm when we ordered the generator to be shut down after all riders were safely off the rides.

Since roughly 7 pm Saturday night, we have been in contact with the Department of Natural Resources, the Chief Sarcoxie Days Committee, an environmental cleanup company, carnival management, and most importantly the carnival’s insurance carrier to address the cleanup of the site. In talking to DNR as of 3 pm today, a DNR representative as well as a contractor are in route to the scene to begin cleanup operations. The cost of this cleanup is being directed to the carnival’s insurance carrier.

I will provide additional information as it becomes available. In the meantime, thank you to everyone who notified the City, Chief Sarcoxie Days Committee and DNR about this. People who care enough to reach out help ensure we all act responsibly.

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