Clean up operations are underway for a large fuel spill in northern Iowa’s Dickinson County. Ken Hessenius, supervisor of the D.N.R.’s Spencer field, says the spill happened around 10 o’clock last night. He says a valve apparently ruptured at the Magellan Pipeline terminal two miles south of Milford and diesel fuel spilled, with initial estimates are that 5,000 gallons of fuel spilled.
Hessenius says some of the fuel did get into a tributary the feeds into the Little Sioux River. Hessenius some of the fuel was contained on the site in a small runoff pond, some ran off into the snow, while some got into the tributary and come containment booms were set up on the tributary.
Hessenius says the winter conditions have made recovering the fuel from the tributary and Little Sioux tough, but he says the heavy runoff has also helped prevent environmental problems. He says there’s a lot of water flow, so the fuel is dispersed. Hessenius says the fuel is lighter than water, so it gets spread out quite a bit and that helps prevent problems.
He says they have not seen any dead fish in the are thus far. Hessenius says they will investigate as they do in any spill and see if any action is warranted against the company.