Fertilizer killed more than 750,000 fish in Iowa and Missouri

Fertilizer killed more than 750,000 fish in Iowa and Missouri 

The carnage took place in the Nishnabotna River, which flows into the Missouri River A fertilizer spill this month in southwest Iowa killed nearly all the fish in a 60-mile stretch of river with an estimated death toll of more than 750,000, according to Iowa and Missouri conservation officers. That is the biggest fish kill in Iowa in at least a decade and the fifth-largest on record, according to state data. And it could have been worse: Fish populations were likely smaller than normal when the spill happened because of cold water temperatures and low river flows. “Thank goodness, in a way, it happened when it did,” said Joe Larscheid, chief of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ fisheries bureau. “But this is a big one. It’s a lot of river miles that have been impacted.” The spill originated at NEW Cooperative in Red Oak, Iowa, where a valve that either malfunctioned or was not properly closed leaked about 265,000 gallons of liquid nitrogen fertilizer, most of which went into the nearby East Nishnabotna River. The leak happened on a weekend from March 9 to 11 in an area where the fertilizer is distributed to customers of the farmers’ co-op. That area is not required by state rules to have barriers that would prevent a leak from reaching the river. The result was a widespread annihilation of aquatic life. An Iowa DNR investigation found dead or dying fish for 50 miles of river — beyond where the East and West Nishnabotnas meet — all the way to the Missouri border. There were also numerous dead frogs, snakes, mussels and earthworms. Iowa will return in late spring to note whether the fertilizer killed turtles that had buried themselves in the river bottom for winter. Their bloated carcasses will float to the river surface. Todd Meyer, of Shenandoah, Iowa, planned to fish the East Nishnabotna not long after hearing about the spill. River contaminations have happened in the area but have never impeded his boating trips on the east or west segments of the river. For example: About a week after the fertilizer spill, gasoline overflowed from an underground tank at an Atlantic, Iowa, convenience store, and some of it went into the East Nishnabotna. That did not result in an apparent fish kill, the DNR said. But after the fertilizer spill, “the whole river was full of dead fish,” Meyer recalled. “It was just nuts.” Meyer used a drone to survey the dead fish in the East Nishnabotna River a few days after the spill. Source