Quick action prevents greater damage in recent Allamakee County manure spill

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reports that a pipe coupler on manure application equipment broke Monday, October 12, allowing manure to reach Clark Creek in northeast Allamakee County about a mile and a half above where the creek flows into the Upper Iowa River southwest of New Albin.
Krauskopf Pumping Service of Decorah was pumping liquid manure from Cyclone 1 hog confinement owned by David Weymiller of rural New Albin for land application on crop fields when the coupler break released an estimated 1,000 gallons of the manure, causing a fish kill in the creek.
“In less than an hour the landowner did a great job of damming the creek, preventing further damage downstream. We checked every place between the spill site and the Upper Iowa River for dead fish,” said Theresa Shay, technician at the DNR’s Decorah fish hatchery. “We only found two dead fish in the entire stretch - two white suckers, but we did see live sticklebacks and white suckers.”
Weymiller's quick response to the break included damming the creek about 250 yards downstream from the spill, then again about 100 yards below the spill. He worked with the applicator to pump manure out of the creek and prevent it from flowing downstream into the Upper Iowa River. Water and manure behind the dammed areas were pumped to a nearby crop field for land application.
The DNR was onsite Tuesday, October 13 taking water samples to analyze for ammonia and monitoring cleanup efforts. Those field tests the day after the spill showed slightly elevated ammonia levels just below the spill location but no ammonia was detected in the Upper Iowa.
DNR investigators are continuing to monitor the full extent of the spill’s impact on the stream, and should have laboratory results available later this week. Reports from the landowner indicate there were more dead fish initially, but they may have washed downstream when one of the temporary dams broke or been pumped out of the creek during the immediate clean-up efforts.
“Having the landowner and the equipment onsite were factors in preventing further damage,” said Brett Meyers, DNR environmental specialist. “They did what they could to protect the Upper Iowa River.”
Meyers indicated any penalties thus far would simply be payment of costs involved with the incident investigation. He said the incident has been referred to the DNR legal department for determination of any further enforcement action.