Eastern Iowa farmer fined for spilling fertilizer and leaving

An Eastern Iowa farmer's fertilizer tank ruptured as he drove in April through Burlington and spilled up to 700 gallons, but he did not report it — and instead ditched the tank and drove away, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Jeffrey Boyer, 66, of rural Oakville, has agreed to pay an $8,000 fine for the incident, a recent department order said. Boyer also was cited by the Burlington Police Department for spilling on a roadway and paid a $354 fine, court records show.

It happened about 4:45 p.m. April 22 as Boyer drove near Burlington Notre Dame High School in a high-traffic area on the city's west side.

A witness who drove behind Boyer's truck reported that one of two large plastic tanks the man was hauling on a trailer broke open and spilled the fertilizer on a 1,000-feet stretch of roadway.

The witness said the driver of the truck — later determined to be Boyer — stopped and "assessed the situation," an Iowa DNR order said. "The driver then left the mostly emptied tank near Casey’s and then left the area."

Boyer could not immediately be reached for comment for this article. He owns farmland near Oakville, about 20 miles north of Burlington, according to county records.

The Burlington Fire Department responded to the spill and sought to keep it from going into a stormwater sewer that flows to a nearby creek. Cleanup was delayed because firefighters for hours were not able to identify what spilled. They used about 3,000 pounds of absorbent granules to contain it.

Eventually, a local ag dealer contacted the fire department and identified it as a predominantly phosphate fertilizer that could be washed from the roadways with water.

An unspecified amount of the substance flowed into Hawkeye Creek, which discolored the creek water but did not cause an apparent fish kill. Tests of the water indicated high levels of ammonia, which has the potential to kill fish directly or to deplete available oxygen.

Boyer declined to help clean the creek, the Iowa DNR said, so the city flushed it with more than 200,000 gallons of water to dilute the contamination.

He agreed to pay the fine, submit a written report to the state about the spill and adhere to state regulations in the future.

"If Mr. Boyer would have timely reported the spill, cleanup efforts would have occurred sooner, and the impact to the stream would have been mitigated," the Iowa DNR order said.

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