A manure spill in Keokuk County appears to have had minimal impact on the English River.

Iowa Department of Natural Resources Officer Ben Stracuzzi says 500 to 600 gallons of manure spilled when a tractor and manure tanker from Dietrich Hauling went into a ditch about 11 miles north of Sigourney on 110 Street about 2:30 pm Saturday.  Stracuzzi says it appears the hitch attaching the tanker to the tractor snapped causing them to enter the ditch.

Stracuzzi says the ditch was next to an unnamed tributary that feeds into the English River, but a member of Dietrich Hauling was able to pump out the tanker, dam up the tributary downstream and pumped contaminated water out of the tributary.  On Sunday, the dam was built higher with more pumping and scraping solid waste out of the ditch to prevent further contamination.

Stracuzzi says the DNR took water samples and while they found some elevated ammonia levels in the tributary, there was no indication the spill reached the English River and there were no dead fish in the tributary or in the river.

The DNR says they will continue to monitor the cleanup and consider appropriate enforcement action.