(Estherville)– Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources say last Friday’s manure spill on a cattle farm near Estherville has turned out to be worse than first thought.
D-N-R officials said earlier quick action to build dikes around the spill prevented manure from reaching the West Fork of the Des Moines River. They now say that some of the liquid manure did, indeed, go into the river…causing a large fish kill. Most of the fish were killed downstream…near Emmetsburg. D-N-R spokesman Ross Harrison says that’s where the manure started to decompose…robbing the water of oxygen…causing the fish to suffocate.
Officials aren’t sure yet how many fish died.
An estimated 400-thousand gallons of liquid manure leaked last Friday when a pipe broke at a cattle farm near Estherville. The farm is owned by John Greig…a former State Representative.
This is the second time in less than two years manure has leaked from a farm owned by Greig.
