A conservation nonprofit has filed suit over a major fertilizer spill in southwest Iowa that killed three-quarters of a million fish in 2024.
NEW Cooperative in Red Oak was responsible for the release of about 265,000 gallons of liquid nitrogen fertilizer into the Nishnabotna River system in March 2024, reportedly due to a valve incorrectly left open for an entire weekend.
The released fertilizer reached the river through a stormwater drainage ditch and levee and flowed downstream, killing an estimated 750,000 fish in Iowa and Missouri and causing considerable harm to other wildlife before being diluted upon reaching the Missouri river.
Efforts to control the spill were complicated by heavy rains, leading to additional discharges into the river.
NEW Cooperative paid a $50,000 penalty to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and a separate $50,000 to the Montgomery County Conservation Board for land and wildlife management programs, according to court filings. Now it faces a lawsuit filed by the group Nishnabotna Water Defenders, which was organized in the wake of the spill.
The complaint, filed in Montgomery County court, accuses NEW Cooperative of negligence, creating a public nuisance and trespass against downstream property owners.
