For immediate release: AUG. 18, 2009

 

LARGE MANURE SPILL NEAR LESTER IN LYON COUNTY

 

MEDIA CONTACT: Ken Hessenius, supervisor, DNR Spencer field office, at (712) 262-4177 or [log in to unmask]

 

LESTER – The DNR is investigating a large manure spill from a dairy confinement about 2.5 miles northwest of Lester in Lyon County.

 

Early estimates indicate about 100,000 gallons of manure may have been lost from a temporary transfer pipe while pumping to a manure storage pit. Confinement owner Bernie Bakker reported that he discovered the spill around midnight.

 

Manure flowed from the piping to a road ditch, into an underground tile line and then into a nearby stream. The stream is a tributary of Mud Creek, which flows into the Rock River.

 

The spill occurred at the Rock Bottom Dairy when a clamp came off the temporary pipe. Bakker plugged the tile line intake, and dammed the dairy yard and the creek to prevent additional manure from flowing downstream.

 

He has hired an excavator to pump and recover as much manure as possible from the site and the creek.

 

DNR staff has confirmed a fish kill, finding several hundred minnows and chubs northwest of the dairy. They traced the manure spill approximately 1.5 miles downstream. Investigators will continue to monitor the situation.

 

The investigation continues and the DNR will consider possible enforcement action.

 

- 30 -

 

 

Karen Grimes

Communications Bureau

Iowa DNR

502 East Ninth Street

Des Moines, IA 50319-0034

(515) 281-5135