Washington, Iowa — Iowa natural resources officials don’t know yet if there will be charges filed as a result of a release of a mixture of rinse water containing herbicides and other farm chemicals from a fertilizer plant here into a creek. “We’ve had a number of water samples taken, and when we get those results we’ll make a decision,” Kevin Baskin, spokesman for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, told Green Markets. Baskin said the release occurred April 17 at Liqui-Grow on the north side of town when an employee was rinsing out totes containing glyphosate, atrazine, and nitrogen stabilizer in a containment area that apparently filled up. When that happened, the employee pumped the rinse water – estimated between 400 and 500 gallons – out of the containment area onto the ground. The rinse water ran over a gravel parking lot before emptying into a drainage ditch and an intake to the storm sewer, which empties into an unnamed tributary of the South Fork of Long Creek on the southeast side of town. At least one resident reported a strong chemical odor and milky white color in his neighborhood stream that evening. Natural resources investigators traced the spill to the Liqui-Grow fertilizer plant. The next day, Liqui-Grow employees flushed the storm sewer with clean water, collecting contaminated rinse water at the outfall. The company will also plug the storm sewer intake and clean the gravel lot and remainder of the spill area. Residents were advised to avoid the creek for at least 48 hours.
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