Tractor Mishap Spills Agriculture Chemicals Into North Dakota River

(Photo by Jacob Orledge/North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) – The North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality is advising the public to avoid a 2-mile stretch of the Cannonball River in Hettinger County after a chemical spill.

The spill, which included 200 gallons of diluted herbicides and approximately 15 gallons of diesel, occurred Wednesday morning when a tractor and sprayer fell into the Cannonball River roughly a mile west of New England in southwest North Dakota.

“From the sound of everything I was getting, I think he just got too close to the bank and the bank gave way,” said Bill Suess, manager of the Department of Environmental Quality’s spill investigation program.

The department is advising the public to avoid recreational activities in the river in a 1-mile radius around the spill and to avoid consuming any fish caught in the area.