A malfunction at the Ames power plant threw ash up into the air, scattered it over a small section of the town Monday morning.

“What happened is that one of the steam tubes that carry the steam from the Unit 8 furnace opened up,” said Donald Kom, director of electric services for Ames. “The steam mixed with the furnace and kicked up some ash from the fire. Some of it went out the stack with the steam.”

The falling ash was concentrated mainly in the region directly south of the power plant. It settled relatively quickly, and Kom said “the lion’s share has already dissipated into the ground.”

The power plant staff is handling the situation proactively and is already at work cleaning up the ash and offering free car wash coupons to citizens whose cars were covered with particulate.

“We’ve sent staff door to door, giving people coupons,” Kom said.

Mike Brown, operations superintendent for the plant, said the severity of the situation was lessened by electronic safeguards.

“We have electronic safeties in place for this type of situation,” Brown said. “As soon as the tube ruptured, it was shut down almost instantaneously. Unfortunately, it had already mixed with some of the ash. A number for how much ash was released is extremely hard to figure.”

Kom stressed that this was normal ash and not harmful to anyone. The failure is not an uncommon one, especially considering the age of the current power plant.

“Most of these tubes are 25 years old – they will thin after a while,” Kom said. “It’s not uncommon for tubes to open up, especially after 25 years of use.”

It will take from a week to 10 days to bring Unit 8 back online. A project to help test and possibly replace larger sections of piping is being discussed by the electric administration.