I guess cutting out meat, dairy, and burning down chicken houses wasn't enough. Now they are after wildlife?

That 750,000 was just what was killed in Iowa!

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The carnage took place in the Nishnabotna River, which flows into the Missouri River
By: Jared Strong - March 28, 2024

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.

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Missouri finds ‘near total fish kill’

The carnage continued into Missouri, where the unified Nishnabotna River flows for about 10 miles before it meets the Missouri River.

Matt Combes, a science unit supervisor for the Missouri Department of Conservation, said there was “a near total fish kill” in that state.

“I can’t even think of another instance where a fish kill occurred out of state and moved into our state,” he said.

The department surveyed one bank of the river for about two miles and counted nearly 4,000 dead fish. It will use that sample to estimate the total number of fish that were killed, Combes said, which will likely be in the hundreds of thousands.

The department is continuing to monitor the Missouri and Nishnabotna rivers for additional effects from the contamination. It’s possible NEW Cooperative will face sanctions in both states.