(Storm Lake)– Officials are keeping close tabs on the water quality in Storm Lake today (Tues.) following a chemical spill Monday evening at the Sara Lee Plant in Storm Lake.
Storm Lake Police Chief and Public Safety Director Mark Prosser says officials were called to the plant shortly before 8:00 p.m. after getting a report of a spill involving a microbial cleansing agent. Sara Lee staff told officials a valve had been opened in the plant causing somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 gallons of water to spill out of the plant and into the parking lot. The water contained a substance known as microtox…a parasitic acid that acts as a cleansing agent. The water flowed from the parking lot into a private storm sewer, then into a city storm sewer that empties into Storm Lake.
Firefighters and Sara Lee staff shored the areas around the storm sewer drains to try to stop the flow. City crews responded to the scene and worked with Sara Lee staff to collect water samples and monitor chemical levels in the storm sewer.
The DNR was notified of the incident.
City officials flushed a large amount of water into the storm sewer in an attempt to dilute the chemical, but it wasn’t known how much contaminated water actually made it into Storm Lake prior to that. Officials say they aren’t sure what, if any environmental impact, the spill will have.
Officials were on the scene about an hour-and-a-half.
