ELMER, MO. -- A small Heartland community reeks of diesel fuel.
That, after 6,700 gallons of the product leaked from a large storage tank over the weekend.
The incident happened at Grigsby Farms in Elmer.
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources said the tank is owned by Brownfield Oil Company of Moberly.
The tank was set into place last week, and sometime after that, investigators say it shifted, causing diesel fuel to leak from around a pipe where the valve is located.
The mess was discovered Sunday evening.
"The fuel has traveled down through the drainage ditches, down the field toward the river, and the contractor for the company that had the spill is trying to clean it up in these conditions," said Alan Cortvrient, Missouri DNR On-Scene Coordinator.
Cortvrient said some of the fuel did make it into the Chariton River thanks to all of the recent rainfall.
He said the cleanup could take a week or more.
Cortvrient told KTVO that Brownfield Oil Company has accepted responsibility for the mishap, and it has hired an environmental cleanup company.
It could take a week or more to clean up the mess.
We called Brownfield Oil twice Tuesday afternoon to get a comment, and the woman who answered hung up on us both times.
She declined to tell us the manager’s name.
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