Iowa oil cleanup continues as one town deals with triple dose of troubles

(WOWT)
Published: Jun. 24, 2018 at 10:13 AM CDT
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A railroad official says 14 of 32 derailed oil tanker cars in the northwest corner of Iowa dumped an estimated 230,000 gallons of crude oil into floodwaters, with some making its way to nearby rivers.

BNSF spokesman Andy Williams confirmed the details Saturday. He says nearly half the spill had been contained with booms near the derailment site and an additional boom placed approximately 5 miles downstream.

Williams says oil will be removed from that containment site with equipment to separate the oil from the water.

The railroad will focus on environmental recovery. Williams says "ongoing monitoring is occurring for any potential conditions that could impact workers and the community and, so far, have found no levels of concern."

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds toured flood-stricken areas of the state Saturday noting in social media posts, "I was impressed by the coordinated efforts of county & state emergency management."

The community of Rock Valley, Iowa has been especially hard hit, confronted by floodwaters, the train derailment and an unrelated fire in the course of 24 hours.

John Wallenburg lives in Rock Valley and said, “Last night the water started coming up and continually came up throughout the night."

Evacuations began in Rocky Valley early Friday morning as water poured into homes and basements.

David Sheffield said, “We were all up most of the night. We got maybe a half hour of sleep."

Leah Vanderbrink, of Doon, Iowa, said, “Around a quarter to five this morning, our neighbor called and said that a train derailed and had derailed into one of our fields."

Many of the same people who were up all night helping with the flood then switched gears. The first priority at the derailment site was to contain and clean up the crude oil that spilled from at least one of the train’s cars.

Lyon County Sheriff Stewart Vander Stoep said, “About 100 people are working on this and they are making some pretty good progress, they've been hauling oil out here all day long."

The massive amount of water in the rural area is slowing down the cleanup.

The sheriff said the “flood is definitely causing a lot of problems. There's a lot of water and then it’s going down to Rock Valley and it’s causing them problems too."

Despite the rising water outside, the oil spill turned Rock Valley's focus to the safety of the water inside, ultimately deciding to turn off all locally sourced water.

City Operator Tom Vanmaanen said, “Our wells were shut off before any type of contamination that could of occurred. We had a large supply in our water towers and we are using our interconnection with rock valley rural water to recharge our water supply."

Then an unrelated fire at an industrial site about a mile south of town took emergency crews away from the derailment.

Vanmaanen said, “It is three significant events that happened in the last 24 hours. It tests the capability of a small town but the great thing about Rock Valley and in many small towns in the Midwest, we seem to rise to the challenges."

Leah Vanderbrink said, “We put out a Facebook post asking for help and food and obviously it has been overwhelming, we have more than enough. We now put a Facebook post 'please don't bring any more food.'"

Sheriff Vander Stoep said, “There is so much food for the workers and for us at the incident command, it's just amazing how little these communities come together."

The cleanup at the derailment site is expected to continue until Monday.