Restricted Area Near Prairie Island Nuclear Power Plant?

I’ve heard of people (one) being asked to leave the area near the Nuke plant back around 9/11. Understandable.

Yesterday a fellow cat fisherman was yelled at being told to leave the area because they “were on Excel Energy’s property”. If he wouldn’t leave they would “get the guy with the machine gun”.

Now he was anchored in the water a distance from the MN shore…far enough where they had to yell at him to be loud enough to hear. He’s 70+ years old with his wife. His boat registration is clearly visible.

I’m trying to think of all scenarios possible and none of them cut it for me.

1) If there was an emergency at the power plant, they should have declared it to the angler. I know he would have left.
2) A miss informed employee that does not know what a Federal Water Way is.
3) If it is a restricted area, I’m miss informed and I can’t find it on the Coast Guards maps.
4) There was and emergency, but Excel doesn’t want the public to know(?)

Anyone know what’s up with this? Since he’s a stubborn ol’ Coot, I’m going to bet he’ll be back out there today without his wife. In fact, after checking a couple more sources, I might be out there with him.

IMO he was the receiver of a terroristic threat.

Anyone have any experience in this area?

2 things need to happen. The Dnr needs to be called and Xcel. The guy yelling should in the very least get a warning.

Have you ever tried to get a hold of someone at the plant? Routed through Denver…then the phone just keeps ringing.

I have an email into Goodhue County at this point. The DNR will be copied shortly. Thanks.

Normally the threat needs to be more specific to be at the teroristic theats level. At the most ot could be assault but the victims would need to be fearfull. If it was me and it is legal to fish there, I would make it my new favorite spot.
DT

deertracker wrote:

If it was me and it is legal to fish there, I would make it my new favorite spot.

Well, he’s planning on going back today without his wife. It might become more specific.

I’ve been in this same area at 2-3 am and never had a problem. I’m almost sure is some employee that feels the power plant owns the river.

Deertracker…you just want to know my spot. LOL!

Brian Klawitter wrote:

Have you ever tried to get a hold of someone at the plant? Routed through Denver…then the phone just keeps ringing.

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LOL

I am more amazed that there is a guy walking around with a machine gun at the plant. Is that all he does? Must be union.

And BK, no I have not contacted XCEl. It was just a suggestion. Don’t get snippy with me son! …

Who would have thunk?

Brian, Major Kris Johnson or Sergeant Scott Powers will be responding to your e-mail as well perhaps with more detailed information.

After September 11, 2001, the federal government instituted a “safety zone area” for the nuclear power plant along their shore line of the Mississippi River that would cover their fresh water intake area and the warm water discharge area. Unfortunately, these areas are not marked. I do not know why. According to Prairie Island Nuclear Power Plant Security Personnel, they do have the authority under federal law to order boaters away from this designated safety area for the safety and security of the plant.

The head of security for the Prairie Island Nuclear Power Plant is Jonathan Corwin. The general number for the plant is 651-388-1121. Mr. Corwin may be able to better explain their authority under law relating to the designated safety zone area. I hope this helps.

Sheriff Scott McNurlin

Sheriff Scott T. McNurlin

“Serve the Mission/Live the Values”

Goodhue County Sheriff’s Office

430 West 6th Street

Red Wing, MN 55066

(651) 267-2621
http://www.goodhuesheriff.com

For pete’s sake! I can understand the shore line but how far out is this zone!

Follow up:

As I understand it, their safety zone area travels along their shoreline then out into the river itself to create a rectangular box. We have been told the islands off the warm water discharge area are within the confines of their safety zone. As I stated earlier, I’m not exactly sure why they do not mark it, but I would assume it’s for security purposes. That might be a good question for the Coast Guard.

I do have a meeting tomorrow with security personnel from the nuclear plant for an upcoming exercise we will be conducting. I’ll ask them about this issue.

I’d be more concerned with whether they really have a machine gun emplacement to enforce this “safety zone” … maybe ask ’em about that issue

desperado wrote:

I’d be more concerned with whether they really have a machine gun emplacement to enforce this “safety zone” … maybe ask ‘em about that issue

Don, the machine gun is their “small arms”. Don’t ask how I know….I’m seeing black ‘copters already.

gee thanks
as if the image of the the phone not being answered, because someone’s asleep at the control panel, wasn’t bad enough

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I know a few walleye guys that aren’t going to be happy.

Another follow up:

Hello Brian,
Sheriff McNurlin asked me to get back to you regarding your inquiry about the waters near the Prairie Island Nuclear generating Plant (PINGP). The USCG has authorized a three hundred foot restricted/security zone on waters adjacent to PINGP property. This was enacted soon after 9/11 and has remained in place to the present. All boats must remain outside the 300’ security zone at all times. There are signs in the area to alert boaters, however, I would say there could be a better effort made by the plant make that area more visible to fishermen and hunters. If plant personnel responded to the boater violating that restricted zone in the way it is suggested I would further agree they could have handled that situation in a much more professional manner. I will try to contact the boater who was involved in this incident to clear up any misconceptions he may have and in order to prevent further confusion. Thank you for your inquiry.

Kris Johnson | Patrol Commander

Goodhue County Sheriff’s Office

430 West 6th Street

Red Wing, MN 55066

I still want to know more about the “guy with the machine gun”.

My my how times have changed. About 30 years ago or so I had this Johnson tri hull use to go up and down the river in. Great boat, great fun but was not always the most reliable. We were going down the river maybe 20 mph or so and then just dead. Battery completely drained, it was inboard/outboard no chance of getting it started and seemed like we were really out of luck as no one around. As we thought of our next move we spied the nuclear power plant, what a stroke of luck to break down there! If anyone could charge a battery you would think a nuclear power plant could. Paddled over to shore my brother grabbed the battery and over the dike he went in search of power. We waited around at the boat and it seemed pretty long time so got worried they hauled my brother off and over the dike I went in search of him and wandered around a nuclear power plant looking at the sights. I guess I got to close to something and they came in a jeep and picked me up and took to the guard shack where my brother waited and the battery was on a battery charger. My brother said they were watching me walk around the plant on TV and decided to come get me only when I got to close to something I shouldn’t. He said the guys were great and laughed because they could not find a battery charger at first to charge up the battery and that is why it took so long. He said the guards mentioned how ironic a nuclear power plant that could not charge up a battery. Got the battery charged they took us back to the boat in the jeep, boat started right up and we tore as fast as that johnson would go to the Hastings launch and made it before the battery went dead again. I guess a guy would not get the same reception as there was not even a fence separating the plant from the river and I did not see any machine guns!

Those were the good ol days Tom, we just didn’t know it.

Patrol Commander Johnson helped me find the actual regulation.

CFR Title 33 section 165.825
(4) Prairie Island Nuclear Generating
Facility Security Zone, Welch, Minnesota—
all waters of the Upper Mississippi
River, extending 300 feet from
the shoreline of the right descending
bank beginning from mile marker 798.0
and ending at 798.3.
/end
Although 798.0 is marked, I don’t believe 798.3 is…but I’ll check for certain.

I don’t want tomorrows headlines to read:

Coast Guard licensed catfish guide and his clients peppered with anti aircraft guns for entering an unmarked restricted zone.

Small tid bit of info about the Federal Code or Regulations.
According to CNS News, there are now 169,301 pages in the Code of Federal Regulations, which is double the number of pages in 1975.

Try finding the Prairie Island reg sometime.

suzuki wrote:

I still want to know more about the “guy with the machine gun”.

Ask anybody that works there. I worked there a few years ago on 1 of the outages.
I’m not sure it fits the category of a machine gun but there are 1 or 2 security guards 24/7 that carry fully automatic weapons. They patrol the whole area within the fenced areas.

This whole issue could have been avoided by just explaining to the angler that it’s a restricted area or even taken his boat registration number and sending him a letter.

Yelling and stating that it’s Excel’s property and “leave or I’ll call the guy with the machine gun” is a little over the top for a person fishing the edge of the 300 foot restricted zone (that no one knows about).

Now that the Coast Guard, the MN DNR and the Goodhue County Sheriff are involved along with PI, I’m expecting some type of signage or relaxing of zone enforcement…along with training of employees or sub contractors on how to deal with these 70+ year old terrorists.

“CFR Title 33 section 165.825
(4) Prairie Island Nuclear Generating
Facility Security Zone, Welch, Minnesota—
all waters of the Upper Mississippi
River, extending 300 feet from
the shoreline of the right descending
bank beginning from mile marker 798.0
and ending at 798.3.”

So some security guy can stand there on shore and accurately see how far 300 feet out into the river is? I’ll bet ya lunch he couldn’t tell the difference between 100 feet and 500 feet.

Steve Root wrote:

So some security guy can stand there on shore and accurately see how far 300 feet out into the river is? I’ll bet ya lunch he couldn’t tell the difference between 100 feet and 500 feet.

How can I put this in a nice way??…
You would think the security people there are highly trained or maybe trained, ex-military, right? Not so much.
I don’t think the pay is that great which probably means well, you know.
And the training is probably not that great…I know both of these from experience.
So here you got a guy that never sees anybody on that property that he’s suppose to be guarding…I doubt too many sneak on just to look at some big brick buildings. So this guard sees somebody, doing something on the water and he assumes the water is within the plant zone and now is his/her chance to actually do something. Life as a Sec. Guard there is really boring…so he grabs his chance to “do something”.
Remember, no training and nothing ever happens there so he gets excited at a chance to “do something”.
Is it right, no but he really didn’t get much for training so what’s “right” to him mean?
If BK or somebody does get some communication with somebody at the plant, I think it boils down to lack of training by the security company.
And now that scares me thinking poorly trained people are guarding a major nuke plant that’s purdy close to my home…yikes.

and nope, not bettin cuz I think you’d win!

You’re such an instigator, BK.

Seriously, though, thanks for doing the leg work on this. If you hadn’t contacted the right people on this, we might have a “Stubborn 70 year old man in boat strafed by A-10’s for power plant security breach” headline in the news.

I first ran into this in Montana while trout fishing in Fort Smith.A forestry employee was detailed from another part of the country by to patrol the dam there,the machine gun was an AR.The power plants in Monticello and Becker are under similar restrictions,you can fish through the area but cannot anchor,I think this is under control of Homeland Security.

I think you’re very close to right on Mr. Gold.

Although I wasn’t there, it might not have been a security person at all. It could have just been a employee or even a subcontractor that heard it in the safety training class. Who knows, but the Sheriff will be taking my letter along with the info from the interview with Gary to an up coming meeting with PI and hopefully these people on the inside of the fence can handle these infidels cat fishing better in the future.

As an added note:
The procedure for entering the “restricted zone” is for PI to call the Sheriff’s Office and to let them deal with us terrorists. -According to the Goodhue County Sheriff’s Department.

Guess we took all the fun out of that employees boring day.

Funny you should mention Homeland Security Jack.

All of my Coast Guard Captains info says that the holder of this credential IS part of Homeland Security. Wonder if my TWIC card will allow me to fish in this area.

“It is so Obvious”
The guys carrying weapons are trained, the guy yelling across the water not so.
Been there, just sayin.

Jeff, I’m hoping his training started this morning.

Here’s the complete chapter:

165.825 Security Zones; Captain of the Port St. Louis, Missouri.
(a) Location. The following areas are security zones:
(1) Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Station Security Zone, Fort Calhoun, Nebraska— all waters of the Missouri River, extending 75 feet from the shoreline of the right descending bank beginning from mile marker 645.6 and ending at mile marker 646.0.
(2) Cooper Nuclear Station Security Zone, Brownville, Nebraska— all waters of the Missouri River, extending 250 feet from the shoreline of the right descending bank beginning from mile marker 532.5 and ending at mile marker 532.9.
(3) Quad Cities Generating Station Security Zone, Cordova, Illinois— all waters of the Upper Mississippi River, extending 300 feet from the shoreline of the left descending bank beginning from mile marker 506.3 and ending at mile marker 507.3.
(4) Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Facility Security Zone, Welch, Minnesota— all waters of the Upper Mississippi River, extending 300 feet from the shoreline of the right descending bank beginning from mile marker 798.0 and ending at 798.3.
(5) Clinton Power Station Security Zone, Clinton, Illinois— all waters of Lake Clinton in Dewitt County in East Central Illinois bounded by a dam constructed near the confluence of Salt Creek River mile 56 and the north fork of Salt Creek. The zone extends out 600 feet from shore. Boundaries of the zone begin at 40°10′30″ N, 88°50′30″ W; thence east to 40°10′30″ N, 88°49′55″ W; thence south to 40°10′15″ N, 88°49′55″ W; thence west to 40°10′15″ N, 88°50′30″ W; thence returning north to the origin. These coordinates are based upon [NAD 83].
(b) Regulations.
(1) Entry into these security zones is prohibited unless authorized by the Coast Guard Captain of the Port, St. Louis or designated representative.
(2) The Ft. Calhoun and Cooper security zones include a portion of the navigable channel of the Missouri River. All vessels that may safely navigate outside of the channel are prohibited from entering the security zone without the express permission of the Captain of the Port St. Louis or designated representative. Vessels that are required to use the channel for safe navigation are authorized entry into the zone but must remain within the channel unless expressly authorized by the Captain of the Port St. Louis or designated representative.
(3) Persons or vessels requiring the Captain of the Port St. Louis’ permission to enter the security zones must contact the Coast Guard Sector Upper Mississippi River at telephone number 319 524-7511 or on VHF marine channel 16 or Marine Safety Detachment Quad Cities at telephone number 309 782-0627 or the Captain of the Port, St. Louis at telephone number 314 539-3091, ext. 3500 in order to seek permission to enter the security zones. If permission is granted, all persons and vessels must comply with the instructions of the Captain of the Port, St. Louis or designated representative.
(4) Designated representatives are commissioned, warrant, and petty officers of the U.S. Coast Guard.
(c) Authority. In addition to 33 U.S.C. 1231, the authority for this section includes 33 U.S.C. 1226.

Careful what you wish for…..

The instances of security guards and fisherman are pretty far apart, and kicking up some dirt on this one BC some old guy got yelled at and his feelings hurt might not be beneficial in the long run. Before you know it there will be barbed wire and added guards at the waters edge, maybe lil red flashing lights hooked up to motion sensors set at 300′.

I say delete this entire post, let things be as they are BC most of the time it works out for everybody. If not keep complaining to the officials and you’ll get your red tape. Darn old guys so sensitive all the time….

I looked at it in that direction too…

It really has nothing to do with Gary, but if it is a restricted zone, but up the barb wires…at least we’ll know it’s and area we aren’t allowed to go into.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse.

…except for when the law is a secret. Don’tcha think?

So you’d be willing to give up fishing spots just for technicalities?

The spot was lost just after 9/11.

We were fortunate enough to fish it a few times…we’re ahead in my book.