A days-long fire at the Iowa City Landfill has created a combustible byproduct that local officials are shipping to Nebraska for disposal.  The fire has produced up to 150,000 gallons of the diesel-like oil.

City Public Works Director Rick Fosse said the landfill's leachate collection system has captured most of the oil, which has been moved into a lagoon on a corner of the landfill. Some of the oil has been collected at the city lift station at Napoleon Park.

But none has been detected at the city sewage plant, said Geoff Fruin, assistant to the city manager.
The city doesn't like storing oil in the lagoon, Fosse said.

“It's a material that we don't want to keep any longer than we have to,” Fosse said. “It's about like diesel fuel.”
Fruin said he estimates that removing and transporting the oil to western Nebraska for destruction is equal or maybe even higher than the cost of putting out the 7.5-acre landfill fire, which has been estimated to cost between $50,000 and $100,000...