On Wednesday, Iowa DNR reported that they were investigating a truck spill in the City of Burlington which released up to 700 gallons of ammonium phosphate on Monday, contaminating Hawkeye Creek, a tributary of the Mississippi River.

The latest spill comes amidst mounting calls for state and federal action on Iowa’s agricultural pollution crisis, linked to the state’s second-in-the-nation cancer rates. Last week, 13 groups petitioned the EPA to take emergency action to protect hundreds of thousands of Iowans living in Northeast Iowa from unsafe drinking water, contaminated by agricultural pollution. Groups are also rallying behind the Clean Water for Iowa Act as a state legislative solution to unchecked factory farm water pollution.

Food & Water Watch Iowa Organizer Michaelyn Mankel issued the following statement:

“Iowan’s right to safe, clean water is under attack — industrial agriculture is to blame. Barely a month goes by without news of another fertilizer or factory farm manure spill, killing fish, threatening drinking water, and turning waterways into stinking cesspools. Iowa’s water is not Big Ag’s dumping ground. Iowans are rising up, building a statewide movement behind the Clean Water for Iowa Act to safeguard our water from Big Ag’s pollution.”

Monday’s spill is not an isolated incident. Earlier this month, Iowa DNR issued a $6,700 fine for a factory farm waste spill near Donnellson that polluted several miles of a creek, while a fertilizer spill last month near Red Oak dumped 265,000 gallons of nitrogen fertilizer into the East Nishnabotna River, killing every fish for 60 miles and threatening drinking water supplies.