According to Boone County Emergency Management Coordinator Dave Morlan, the problem began when a Union Pacific tanker car that was carrying ethanol began leaking out of a single spout underneath the car, which is normally covered with a cap.

"One of those caps came off a car to allow it to leak," Morlan said. "There's some indication that this leak goes as far as maybe western Greene County."

The largest spill, however, occurred within Boone County, just west of where Quartz Avenue crosses the UP railroad tracks - a popular route for large trucks heading to and from the Industrial Park just north of that location. Morlan said between the time it started leaking and the spot just west of Quartz Avenue, approximately 30,000 gallons have been leaked.

The initial call for the incident came in at 4:44 a.m. on Tuesday morning, and as a precaution against accidental fire from vehicles crossing the tracks, sand has been put down on each crossing from the east side of Boone all the way to Ogden.

"Flash point for this stuff, and what that means is the outdoor temperature that it has to be at before this stuff is really flammable, should be somewhere in the range of about 45 degrees," Morlan said. "So as long as we're under 45 degrees, we don't have to worry too much about an accidental fire. By the time we get this all cleaned up and it warms up a little bit, it's probably going to be evaporated enough that we won't have to worry about it then."

Clean-up on the scene began at approximately 8:15 a.m. in Boone, according to emergency radio transmissions, by the Des Moines Fire Department Hazardous Material crews, and a clean up company out of Des Moines. Other departments involved on scene included local fire departments, police, public works, engineers, and employees from Union Pacific.

Train traffic on that railway has been shut down since the incident was reported.

(The preceding article by Greg Eckstrom was published March 3, 2010, by the Boone News-Republican.)