Doon, Iowa (RI) — Last month’s oil spill from a string of derailed tanker cars in northwest Iowa may not have been as bad as first thought.
Clean-up is still underway near Doon where flooding is thought to have led to the derailment of 32 tanker cars on June 22nd. Officials with BNSF Railway now say it appears ten cars leaked oil for a total of 160-thousand gallons. The original estimate was 14 cars and 230-thousand gallons.
The railroad says testing of nearby private wells and the Rock Valley city wells finds -no- contamination of drinking water. Most of the oil coated a cornfield and the topsoil, which BNSF is working to replace, though the process may take well into fall.
