ANDERSON COUNTY, Ky. — Days after a mysterious white foam was found covering the water in a Kentucky creek, officials say it was caused by dog shampoo.
Video posted by The Anderson News shows the foam running down Cedar Brook, which empties into the Kentucky River. The video’s caption says Danny Robinson first spotted the foam and alerted public safety officials, who immediately began investigating the cause.
BREAKING: TUESDAY, 8:45 P.M. — This is a video of massive amounts of foam floating down Cedar Brook, a small tributary that begins near the old industrial park and empties into the Kentucky River. As of 8:30 p.m., the source of the foam had not been determined. Danny Robinson, whose home sits just feet from Cedar Brook, said he spotted the foam around 6:30 p.m. and immediately called Judge-Executive Orbrey Gritton, who arrived at Robinson’s home a short time later along with Anderson County Public Safety Director Bart Powell. Gritton and Powell left the property and headed toward the old industrial park after calling the Environmental Protection Agency, which is currently trying to determine the source, Gritton said. “We are calling in the necessary resources to determine what this is, what is causing it and what steps we need to take next,” Gritton said by phone. Cedar Brook empties into the Kentucky River downstream from the city of Lawrenceburg’s water treatment facility, which draws water from the river. Mayor Troy Young said workers at the facility are monitoring the situation, along with the city’s sewer crews. He said drinking water has not been affected by the foam. Robinson said he spotted the foam earlier in the evening when it first started. “You sometimes see foam in the water, but it looked kind of strange at first,” he said. “Within a few minutes, it looked very strange and all this foam just came flowing past us.” Check back here for more information as it becomes available.
Posted by The Anderson News on Tuesday, April 5, 2022
Robinson said he first noticed the foam while eating dinner at home with his wife. “Within 15 minutes, the whole creek went from a few inches to a foot of thick foam,” Robinson told WDKY. “I said, ‘We gotta make some calls, this is serious.’”
Bart Powell, the county’s public safety director, told the Lexington Herald Leader that the foamy substance had piled up in areas to 6 feet or more and was flowing for 2 to 3 miles.
The Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet told WYMT it had determined the cause of the foam as Glo-Marr Pet Products Inc. in Lawrenceburg, which had released dog shampoo. That shampoo got into a storm drain and then discharged into the creek.
In a statement to WDKY, an official from the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet said “a contractor was on site today to recover whatever material was left after the spill. The stream was measured for dissolved oxygen and pH and there was no apparent effect on wildlife.”
A vice president at Glo-Marr Pet Products Inc. told WDKY the foam was likely the result of a broken pipe, which they are working to find and fix.
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