MUD is monitoring metro water supplies after a train derailment in northwest Iowa that resulted in a release of crude oil.
Authorities say the oil is leaking from one or more of 31 tanker cars that derailed around 4:30 Friday morning. BNSF railroad spokesman Andy Williams said no one was injured when the cars derailed around 4:30 a.m. Friday just south of Doon in Lyon County.
Officials on the scene aren't sure whether floodwater from the swollen Little Rock River caused the cars to leave the tracks. Williams says he doesn't yet know how much oil has leaked and how many cars are leaking.
Sheriff Stewart Vander Stoep says four homes near the site were evacuated. He says the oil is being carried downstream into the Rock River a few hundred yards west. The Rock River has gone out of its banks as well and is expected to crest later Friday at Rock Valley, less than 5 miles downstream.
The Metropolitan Utilities District is closely monitoring the oil spill, 153 miles to the north. In a statement released this afternoon officials said "M.U.D. will continue to monitor the situation, and if necessary, will shift water pumping away from the Florence Water Treatment Plant along the Missouri River to the District’s two other water treatment facilities, Platte South and Platte West, which are supplied by the Platte River. Water quality and safety are of the utmost importance to M.U.D. and its customers."
For updates, check the District’s website