Pasted below and attached as a Word document is a press release from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Environmental Services Division.

 

 

Iowa DNR News

Environmental Services Division

 

For immediate release                                                                             May 20, 2009

 

SMALL BIODIESEL RELEASE IN SAC COUNTY

 

MEDIA CONTACT:  Tom Roos at (712) 260-9269 or (712)262-4177 (office) or [log in to unmask] 

 

WALL LAKE – About 250 gallons of soy-based biodiesel was released into a small ditch south of the city of Wall Lake Tuesday night.

 

The Sac County biodiesel firm Western Iowa Energy discovered the leak at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday and reported it to the DNR. The company traced the leak to a heat exchanger that it had cleaned on Tuesday.

 

“The biodiesel was very dilute, about one percent of the 22,000 gallons of water that flowed to the ditch overnight,” said Tom Roos, an environmental specialist with the DNR Spencer field office. “This is a biodegradable product, but it can still take oxygen out of the water as it breaks down.”

 

Western Iowa Energy was able to dam up the ditch, keeping most of the biodiesel out of Lime Creek, which flows to the Boyer River. The company will pump out the ditch. Roos checked Lime Creek downstream of the release, finding live fish and no discoloration in the water.

 

The DNR will consider enforcement action as appropriate. 

 

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Karen Grimes

Communications Bureau

Iowa DNR

502 East Ninth Street

Des Moines, IA 50319-0034

(515) 281-5135