What’s orange and floats in a ditch? That’s the rather scary question Iowa’s Department of Natural Resources will try and answer, after someone reported a suspicious substance near an industrial area in Council Bluffs. The DNR’s Holly Anderson is based in Atlantic and says they have yet to identify it.She’s taken samples and sent them to a state lab in Iowa City and the agency’s working with the city of Council Bluffs as well to try and identify the substance and a “responsible party” who may have dumped it. Andersen describes the site that’s being investigated. It’s in an industrial area, south of downtown Council Bluffs near some railroads and industry on 29th Avenue north of Interstate-80. The agency so far thinks someone dumped something into a culvert, in a “pretty remote area.” The reddish-brown liquid appeared Thursday and investigators say they’ve also found a “petroleum product” in the storm-sewer ditch and are working to link it to someone responsible for the dumping.
