Source of the Mysterious Sheen on the Mississippi River in Minnesota Revealed

While out and about last Tuesday, August 20th, in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, people started to notice something odd in the Mississippi River below. It was a strange-looking sheen, or shiny look, on the surface of the water.

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Strange Sheen Spotted in the Mississippi River

The first official report of the sheen was about 1 PM that Tuesday, according to FOX 9. It was reported at the Highway 610 bridge in Coon Rapids and continued to travel downstream into the greater Twin Cities area.

When you see something strange in a body of water, especially in a body of water that a lot of people get their drinking water from, it causes concern. What the heck is this stuff and where did it come from?

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What Was the Weird Sheen in the Mississippi River?

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) gathered a sample and brought it in for testing. They determined that it was a type of lubricant. A lubricant that's used at the Coon Rapids Dam.

Turns out, a crew had been working on the dam that morning when something malfunctioned and about 30 gallons of lubricant spilled into the Mississippi... Don't worry, officials told KARE 11 and many other sources that "the lubricant is not harmful if it gets into contact with food, and drinking water is safe."

However, as of the end of last week, there were measures being taken to prevent the spill from getting into the drinking water systems of Minneapolis and St. Paul.