The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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December 8, 2006

Ethanol spill decision: No cleanup required

Tim Krohn

CAMBRIA — There will be no action taken to clean up the site of an ethanol spill from a railroad derailment, but monitoring wells will be installed.

State pollution officials said boring tests from the site near Cambria in Blue Earth County showed the soil is naturally very high in organic material, which will help speed the evaporation of ethanol and a small amount of gasoline.

And they found the ethanol is being contained well by clay under the topsoil and there has been no migration of pollutants and no pollutants detected in the Minnesota River.

“They think is will naturally evaporate rather quickly,” said Nancy Miller, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

Six Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad cars derailed Nov. 22 with 30,000 gallons of ethanol, mostly from one tanker, spilling into the dry bed of the Little Cottonwood River.

MPCA officials had said the spill area may need to be excavated or the soil aerated to speed evaporation.

But Miller said disturbing the soil would likely do more damage than good.

“The fear is if they start excavating they’d take the organic material out and put fill back in that is less organic, which would actually slow the evaporation (of ethanol).”

The ethanol itself will break down naturally. There was a small amount of gasoline — 2 percent — that is routinely added to ethanol to prevent people from drinking it.

Miller said a natural clay liner several inches under the topsoil at the spill site helped hold the spill in a confined area.

“There’s no ground-water migration towards anyone’s well or anything.” She said any residential wells in the area draw their water from a deeper aquifer.

She said six monitoring wells will be put in around the edges of the spill site early next week so that officials can monitor if there is any migration of pollutants.

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