For immediate release: November 24, 2009

 

DAIRY CREAM SPILL REACHES DALLAS COUNTY CREEK

 

MEDIA CONTACT: Ted Petersen, DNR Des Moines field office, at (515) 250-3869 or [log in to unmask]

 

DE SOTO — A spill of dairy cream Saturday near De Soto, contained this weekend, has now reached a Dallas County stream.

 

A semitrailer hauling 5,000 gallons of dairy cream, owned by Gonzalez and Sons Express of Yukon, Okla., overturned Saturday while exiting Interstate 80 at exit 110. Local fire and hazardous material crews, as well as Iowa Department of Transportation staff, used sand to contain the spilled cream at the site for Gonzalez and Sons to pump up later.

 

As of Tuesday, the trucking company had not yet removed the cream, and rain weakened the sand berms holding the cream. As a result, some of the dairy cream flowed into a drainage ditch and south through the town of De Soto to Bulger Creek, a tributary of the South Raccoon River. It is unknown how much of the cream has reached the creek.

 

While the DNR did not observe a fish kill in the creek or river on Tuesday, the dairy cream can threaten fish and other aquatic life in the stream. As the cream breaks down, oxygen that fish and aquatic life need to survive is pulled out of the water.

 

The DNR will continue to investigate and may consider possible enforcement action.

 

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