Health leaders are advising people and pets to avoid an area in Oneida where the DNR has responded to a manure spill.
The DNR was made aware of this spill on the Outagamie and Brown County line Tuesday, but officials say the spill likely started Sunday night.
The farm says the spill happened when a valve holding manure in an under-barn storage failed and released most of the contents into the farm's main manure storage structure. That structure, already nearly full, overtopped and released manure.
Before the source of the spill was found, officials estimate about 300,000 gallons of manure was released into a grassy waterway into Silver Creek which connects to the Duck Creek causing a fish kill. The manure flowed east and most of it is in Brown County.
"Essentially the slug has moved downstream. There's still going to be effects with dissolved oxygen in the water, as the water moves out into the Duck Creek Delta,” says Jim Snitgen, the Water Resource Supervisor for the Oneida Nation. “The good news is because of the recent rain it moved things out fairly quickly.”
Officials say they could physically see manure in the stream Monday. On Tuesday they say there wasn't a lot of evidence of the manure, but they will continue to flush out the waterways and monitor the incident in the coming days.
The farm contacted a sewage pumper yesterday and manure is being pumped from Silver Creek near the State Highway 54 crossing. The Oneida Nation is monitoring the water quality with assistance from the state DNR.
