The Ajinomoto plant in Eddyville had to be evacuated Wednesday night because of a chemical spill.  Mahaska County 911 was told around 8:20pm about an acid leak at the plant.  Ajinomoto makes amino acids that are used as supplements to make feed for dairy cattle, swine and poultry. Eddyville residents were advised to shelter in place until the chemical completely bleeds off from the tank.  Mahaska County Sheriff Russ Van Renterghem tells the No Coast Network what happened.

“There is a valve that was leaking, and had basically blown out, some type of valve.  They were able to shut the main valve off last night, that would have been around 10, 10:30, which stopped the flow.   And they were working, I think they worked until probably 1 or 2 this morning, to back pump it into a storage container.”

There have been no reports of injuries.   Van Renterghem says the wind worked in favor of emergency management personnel.

“The wind was out of the northeast.  There was a minor plume from this acid, the wind carried the small plume to the southwest, out into an agricultural area.   Like I said, we were all very thankful that the wind wasn’t  out of the southwest going toward the northeast, because we were going to have to evacuate the city of Eddyville at that time.”

Van Renterghem says the situation at Ajinomoto is still being monitored and there’s no further danger to the public.