Flooding raises stink in Iowa town

Smelly stew of farm chemicals, sewage, fuel poses danger

Associated Press

June 17, 2008

OAKVILLE, Iowa - The floodwaters that deluged much of Iowa have done more than knock out drinking water and destroy homes. They have also spread a noxious brew of sewage, farm chemicals and fuel that could sicken anyone who wades in.

Yesterday, Bob Lanz used a 22-foot aluminum flatboat to navigate through downtown Oakville, where water reeked of pig manure and diesel fuel.

"You can hardly stand it," Lanz said as he surveyed what remained of his family's hog farm. "It's strong."

LeRoy Lippert, chairman of emergency management and homeland security in nearby Des Moines County, warned people to avoid the floodwaters: "If you drink this water and live, tell me about it. You have no idea. It is very, very wise to stay out of it. It's as dangerous as anything."

In addition to the poison in the water, there are mosquitoes - millions of them spawning in acres of standing water.

As some of Iowa's flooded towns began cleaning up yesterday, others braced for new flooding, particularly in southeastern Iowa along the Mississippi River. Most requests for state aid were coming from Des Moines County, where the Mississippi was not expected to crest until tomorrow. The county had asked for a half-million sandbags.

"We have just begun to fight," said Gov. Chet Culver. Two more deaths were reported yesterday, including a woman whose car was hit by a National Guard truck, bringing the state's flood-related death toll to five.

Elsewhere, damage in the college town of Iowa City appeared limited. About 400 homes were flooded Sunday, and 16 University of Iowa buildings sustained some flood damage over the weekend. But the town's levees were holding and the Iowa River was falling.

Officials in Illinois were building up the approach to the only major bridge over the Mississippi River linking Hamilton with Keokuk, Iowa, so the bridge could stay open despite rising water.

In Cedar Rapids, hazardous conditions forced officials yesterday to stop taking residents into homes where the water had receded. Broken gas lines, sink holes and structural problems with houses made conditions unsafe, said Dave Koch, a city spokesman.

Frustrations spilled over at one checkpoint, where a man was arrested at gunpoint after he tried to drive past police in his pickup truck.

Warnings about the dangers of walking in the polluted water prompted hundreds of people to line up at a downtown clinic Sunday for free tetanus shots.

Teresa Schirm wore latex gloves and shorts as she stood ankle-deep in smelly brown water in her garage in Cedar Rapids.

"You can see the oil on top of the water," she said. "But when you're trying to salvage what little you have left, you do it. I don't know what else to do."

In downtown Cedar Rapids yesterday, all manner of refuse could be seen floating down the Iowa River - 55-gallon drums labeled "corrosive," propane tanks, wooden fences and railroad ties. Dead birds and fish lay on the city's 1st Avenue Bridge.

A few blocks away, a paint store stood with its windows blown out. A line indicating the high-water mark could be seen about 8 feet above the floor. At the gas station next door, strong currents had knocked over two pumps.

Also mixed into the floodwaters are pesticides, herbicides and fertilizer from Iowa's vast stretches of farmland.

The flooding also raised concerns of contamination in rural wells, said G. Richard Olds, professor and chairman of the Medical College of Wisconsin.

"For rural folks, it's going to be hard to know if their water's safe or not," he said.

Adding to the misery were the mosquitoes, which can breed rapidly in the standing water.

Business was already heating up at Mosquito Control, a company in Rolfe, Iowa, that sprays insecticide from a crop-duster airplane.