Urea spill not expected to cause serious environmental impacts

Environment Waikato does not expect a urea spill into the Waikato River this morning to cause any serious environmental impacts.

The regional council was notified of a truck accident on Tutukau Rd, just upstream of Lake Ohakuri near Atiamuri, this morning and sent two staff to the scene.

The truck was carrying urea, a nitrogen fertiliser commonly used by dairy farmers, some of which spilt into the Waikato River.

“Urea breaks down into ammonia initially, which can be toxic in a waterway, but at this stage we are not expecting that to be a problem because of the large diluting capacity of the Waikato River and the relatively small amount of urea that was spilt,” Environment Waikato incident response manager David Stagg said.
“We are not expecting to see any visible difference to the appearance or health of the river.”