SANDPOINT — A comprehensive, site-specific response plan is in place in the event of a catastrophic oil spill on Lake Pend Oreille and the Clark Fork River.

The Lake Pend Oreille Geographic Response Plan was developed through a mosaic of state grant funding and contributions from railway companies such as BSNF.

“There’s an opportunity to take what we’ve learned up here and carry that throughout the state and different areas,” William “Brad” Richey, deputy chief of the Idaho Office of Emergency Management, told the Idaho Lakes Commission during a presentation on Friday.

The plan identifies at-risk resources such as water intakes and wetlands and provides a suite of countermeasures to protect them. Exclusion booms could wall off water intakes, while other booms could be used to influence the direction of an oil spill.

“Our big goal at DEQ is to try to minimize the impact of the spill and also to minimize the environmental impact of the recovery as well,” said Mark Dietrich, technical services division administrator at the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.

A spill would activate the state’s communications backbone and its specific classification would immediately draw in the appropriate agencies whether it’s a petroleum release, a radiological misadventure or even the detonation of a weapon of mass destruction.

“This gives us what we call a ‘common operating picture’ immediately and starts a huge response,” said Jeff Rylee, a hazardous material/special teams operations official with Idaho Office of Emergency Management.

The 400-plus page plan for Lake Pend Oreille focuses exclusively on petroleum spills because of the increase in volume of oil tankers hauling crude oil pulled from the Bakken formation in the Great Plains’ Williston Basin. Up to 3 million gallons of the crude course along Bonner County waterways per week, according to state officials.

“You’re talking about a lot of volume that’s coming through the area,” said Rylee.

There are also some windswept realities despite the rigorous planning.

Geography is one of the main ones.

“The problem is we are isolated in northern Idaho,” said Selkirk Fire Rescue & EMS Chief Ron Stocking. “It’s going to take a while for to get help here so we have to be prepared for that one-hour window.”

To that end, Selkirk Fire has strategically cached containment booms at several of its fire stations. Some of its members also allied with the state’s Region 1 specialized haz/mat team.

“Selkirk Fire has made a conscious effort to have a thousand feet of boom ready 24/7 to deploy at three different locations,” said Stocking.

The department can also launch a Zodiac watercraft even if the lake’s annual drawdown leaves boat ramps high and dry.

“You’ve got to get boom pretty quick if you want any chance of recovery,” said Nick Winslow, a BNSF Railway haz/mat specialist said.

The company also has a “current buster” containment system that can control spills in water moving up to 5 mph.

But the plan also highlights a significant vulnerability with regard to evacuations.

The plan notes that recent experiences with train accident indicates that the average time between derailment and the onset of fire is less than 20 minutes. On some occasions, the fire started immediately. A further complicating consideration is the predominance of high-occupancy dwellings near the railroad tracks.

An oil train accident in Sandpoint, for instance, would likely require the evacuation of half the city’s area, according to the plan.

“Existing preparations do not appear to adequately address the process for a hasty evacuation,” the plan states.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.