Duluth zoo faces $175,000 repair bill from flooding

Last week's flooding at the Lake Superior Zoo in Duluth, Minn., caused as much as $175,000 in damage to pumps and other electrical equipment in the lower level of the polar exhibit, zoo officials say, according to the Duluth News-Tribune. A culvert that was under repair got blocked under a BNSF bridge downstream from the zoo, and water backed up Kingsbury Creek during a heavy rain Aug. 18.

"The water just kept
getting deeper and deeper and creeping up the hillside and moving back up to the
polar shores exhibit," said Sam Maida, chief executive officer of Lake Superior
Zoo. Finally reaching the exhibit’s pumping system, grimy floodwater quickly
rose about four feet in the polar shores basement.

"If the water had gotten
any higher, we might have had an issue with what are we going to do with the
polar animals," Maida said. "You can’t just move a polar bear on a spur of the
moment like that."

The flooded Kingsbury
Creek has since receded and, after heavy sterilization, the zoo is back open
for business. Some damage, however, cannot be undone, Maida said.

"Floodwaters got up into
the polar building and down into the lower units where the pumps and the pump
motors are and all the electronic gear that controls those," Maida said.

Although the six motors
are running smoothly, zoo administrators say they fear wear and corrosion will
make them unreliable. City officials say new pumps cost $25,000 apiece. The
city is weighing its options.

"[The motors] do have a
shortened lifespan, it’s my understanding, and we will be dealing with the BNSF
folks relative to that," city architect Terry Groshong said. The projected
amount needed to bring polar shores back online: up to $175,000. Because BNSF’s
culvert caused the flooding, city and zoo officials expect that the railroad
should pay 100 percent of the damage, Groshong said.

Maida agrees.

"Electronic components,
those motors and such, that’s a big investment, huge investment for the city
and for the taxpayers," Maida said.

City officials say Duluth
would front the money for repairs and be reimbursed later by BNSF.

The city owns the zoo and
provides money for its operation. The zoo is managed by the Lake Superior
Zoological Society, a nonprofit organization that exists solely to manage the
zoo and its concessions.