(The following article by Frank Santiago was posted on the Des Moines Register website on December 1.)
DES MOINES, Iowa — Gary Pusillo and his family have grown fruit trees, vegetables and natural grasses on a 180-acre patch of Marshall County for 13 years.
Pusillo recently donated about 10 acres to Hispanic immigrant families so they would have a place to raise their own corn, peppers, tomatoes and squash.
But his “making it beautiful” dream, he said, was dealt a potentially fatal blow Nov. 6, when a Union Pacific freight train dribbling phosphoric acid rumbled across the edge of his property.”This will destroy all the gains we made over the years,” said Pusillo, a forensic animal doctor and certified organic farmer who recently planted 100 apple trees and keeps most of what he produces.
The faulty car, inspectors later learned, spread 3,973 gallons of acid across 250 miles before it was discovered in Council Bluffs.
Pusillo doesn’t know how much acid was spilled near his property, but he said there might already be signs of trouble: Several beavers who lived near the track packed up and left.”I haven’t seen them since the accident,” he said.
Pusillo, who lives 8 miles west of Marshalltown, is the only person to claim damage from the acid spill, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, although there have been calls to other agencies. One central Iowa man, for example, wanted to know whether the acid would damage the underside of his Cadillac if he drove across the tracks.
Jim Striker, natural resources supervisor in central Iowa, said the agency will take soil samples at Pusillo’s farm to assess damage. He said the extent probably won’t be known until the growing season.”If he is advertising or using chemical-free food, it may be he can’t continue to advertise it that way,” Striker said. “Whether the damage is real or perceived, we don’t know.”
Organic farming has grown to an $11 billion industry nationally, according to the Iowa State University Extension Service. In Iowa, 100,000 acres are devoted to chemical-free corn, soybeans, pasture and dairy farming, said Maury Wills of the Iowa Department of Agriculture.That means no herbicides or pesticides, no synthetic fertilizers, and no hormones or antibiotics in livestock production. Fruits and vegetables make up a small portion of the state’s organic output.
Phosphoric acid, Wills said, would violate the tenets of organic crop production. But, he added, it would be difficult to know without soil samples and a close inspection.
“If I was in his situation, the stress is just knowing that you have this train coming through all the time and you don’t know what it is carrying or spilling,” Wills said.Some organic growers use buffer strips between their crops and potential hazards to avoid similar problems. They also let individuals and businesses that spread chemicals know where the boundaries are.
“Communication and cooperation go a long way,” he said.
But Pusillo, who tracks livestock diseases for a living, says communication had been poor when it comes to state agencies and the acid spill.
“I got a letter back from someone who said there are always consequences when we choose to live near a rail system,” he said. “The track was here before us. We have learned to live with the noise, but negligence is not part of what I think of as being part of living next to a railroad.”Warren Flatau, spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration in Washington, D.C., said the acid leak remains under investigation.
“We’re looking to determine if the tank car had been loaded properly, whether any mechanical equipment on that car failed or malfunctioned, where the car initially had been loaded, and was it done in accordance with regulations,” he said.
Flatau doesn’t know when the probe will be complete, but said it won’t be soon.Meanwhile, Pusillo hasn’t asked for money.
Farmers who want to be certified by the state to label, advertise and sell their products as organic must forgo chemical help for three years. Pusillo said any damage from the acid spill would be a major setback.
“We want to bring the land back to nature. This is our little bit of heaven,” he said. “We escape here.”