Thousands of gallons of anhydrous ammonia vanish from Harrison County tanks

Officials in western Iowa’s Harrison County are investigation the disappearance of thousands of gallons of anhydrous ammonia. During a routine check of inventory at the Missouri Valley Farm Services Company, Wednesday, officials found somewhere between 56- and 64-thousand gallons of anhydrous ammonia — a common farm chemical — was missing from their above ground storage tanks. The loss was discovered at around one p.m. The company suspected the anhydrous was seeping out of underground piping leading to the tanks, and began excavating the piping to confirm their suspicions. Because there is the risk of ammonia leaching through the soil into the ground water, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources will be sampling private drinking water from wells located within a one-mile radius of the release. That process was expected to begin sometime today.