AMES, Iowa (AP) – More than half the manufacturers surveyed in six western Iowa counties say they are being affected by Missouri River flooding. The flooding has played havoc with transportation logistics and employee commuting, given the blockages of Interstate 29 and the closing of some Nebraska-Iowa bridges over the river.

Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Center for Industrial Research and Service contacted about 200 manufacturers total in Fremont, Harrison, Mills, Monona, Pottawattamie and Woodbury counties. About 120 took part in the survey, and 53 percent of them reported problems. Outreach center program manager Ruth Wilcox says the manufacturers will be experiencing flood-caused problems for many months as they deal with regional issues such as levee conditions and degraded roads.

Officials say a natural gasoline pipeline is leaking into the flooded Missouri River somewhere between Onawa, Iowa and Decatur, Nebraska. The leak was discovered early Saturday after the pipeline lost pressure. Kathy Lee, a member of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ Emergency Response unit, says teams are searching for signs of the leak from the air, from boats and from the ground level.

“On Sunday, they started vacuuming out the pipeline to remove any residual product,” Lee says. “They were hoping they would draw river water into the pipeline and then, based on where the river water was coming in, that would help them determine the location of the leak.” If the source of the leak isn’t found today (Monday), Lee say specially-trained scuba diving teams will be sent down into the turbulent water on Tuesday. She says it’s likely that erosion from the flooding, which has lasted more than two months, uncovered the once-buried pipeline on the Iowa side of the border.

“They suspect the pipeline is leaking in the floodplain of the Missouri River as opposed to being underneath the Missouri River,” Lee says. “There would have been about three feet of overburden in that area of the floodplain and they suspect that cover or overburden has washed away.” The pipeline is owned and operated by Enterprise Products of Houston, Texas. Natural gasoline evaporates quickly and she says there have been no fishkills or any other problems associated with the leak.
Lee says, “We haven’t received any reports of adverse effects either on wildlife, aquatic life or from any of our public water supplies along the river.”

The eight-inch pipeline was closed off over the weekend after the leak was discovered and contained more than 140-thousand gallons of natural gasoline. The fluid is not the same as natural gas. Natural gasoline is an unrefined light-weight liquid, clear to light amber in color. It’s used in the making of ethanol and has several other industrial applications. Lee says a second pipeline carrying propane runs in the same trench as the natural gasoline pipeline. Company officials are burning off propane on the Nebraska side of the river as a precaution.

(Radio Iowa)

A brown, female Lab was found on the highway between Wiota and Atlantic. She’s very friendly. If you’re missing this dog, please call 243-6903.

w/ Ric Hanson

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A little girl’s cat has been missing in Atlantic since Friday. “Tiger,” a recently spayed female cat, is gray-striped and has it’s tummy shaved from the recent surgery.

It was lost from the vicinity of 6^th & Maple. If you see this cat, please call 243-5187.

Officials with the Nishna Valley Family YMCA in Atlantic say the 10-a.m. Arthritis Water Aerobics class has been cancelled for today.

While the flooding on the Missouri River has caused a lot of headaches for the people living there, an expert with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources says it looks like its going to be a good thing for the animals that live in the river. Southwest Iowa fisheries supervisor, Chris Larson, says the flooding is having a major impact on the habitat.

“It’s kind of a biological payday for us in fisheries because the fish have been restricted to the channel for almost 57 years, and now they have this huge expanse of area to live and reproduce and grow and things like that,” Larson explains. Larson says there was an effort to improve the habitat before the flooding, and this is an extra benefit.

He says they obviously did not want to see the river flood to such extent that it damaged human property and lives, but he says there will be a small benefit from shallow habitat areas created that weren’t here before. He says the floodwaters are teaming with life.

Larson says crews have been doing some sampling and they are seeing “young of year” fish species all over the flood plain that they have not seen in the past, especially above Omaha where the river has rarely been out of its banks. He says they are seeing “paddlefish and saugers and blue suckers and all different kinds of species that’re taking advantage of the smorgasbord of food that’s left out there for ’em.”

Larson says there should be a wealth of good new fishing in the area after the floodwaters finally recede Larson says he can’t think of any fish species that have not been found in the floodplain in their limited sampling. The floodwaters are expecting to continue recede through the month of August.

(Radio Iowa)

For the third year in a row, an Adams County man has captured a State Fair title for a prize winning bull. Jim Stalcup‘s 2,768 pound bull “Bubba“ won the Super Bull category at the fair. For Stalcup, of Prescott, it was not only his third win in a row, but his sixth overall. Stalcup will celebrate 60-years in the cattle business, in 2012.

“Bubba” the bull was about 1,000 pounds heavier than the average bull, and more than double the size of market-weight cows that go to slaughter. The six-year old beast eats about a bushel of corn each day, but during the recent heat wave, he ate less than half of that, and lost about 300-pounds.

Bubba has sired about 300 calves since he came of age, five-years ago. His reign as a bull among bulls will come to an end after the fair, when he is sent to his demise, and future as hamburger.

An Audubon County teen was named the second runner-up during the selection of the State Fair Queen title, Saturday night. Chelsea Nelson, the daughter of Dave and Trudy Nelson, of Exira, was a finalist in the contest. The second runner-up wins $700 in scholarship money and a $250 Jordan Creek Mall gift card.

The title of Fair Queen went to Paris Schnepf, of Granville, in O’Brien County, who won a $2,800 scholarship and $600 gift card to the Jordan Creek shopping mall. Her name will also be placed on a brick at the Riley Stage, on the State Fairgrounds.

Cassie Galm, of Spencer, in Clay County was named 1^st runner-up, and Kelsey Orr, of Sioux City, in Woodbury County, was the third runner-up for the title.

The winners were chosen from 101 county queens, and had spent several days with judges at the fair. Last year’s Iowa State Fair Queen, was Lacy Stevenson.