Incident Report - Fish Kill - Blacks Run in Harrisonburg August 2, 2014 Complaint: Alan Lehman responded to investigate a complaint of a fish kill in Blacks Run in downtown Harrisonburg, Virginia. The complaint came in by phone from Doug Dunkle, who has seen us present at the local Trout Unlimited during monthly meetings, and the call came to Jeff Kelble the Shenandoah Riverkeeper. Doug works in the area where the kill occurred. His phone number is 540-476-3700. Shenandoah Riverkeeper Kelble discussed the incident with Alan Lehman Agricultural and Field Program manager, and they decided Alan would investigate. Findings: Early Saturday morning, I walked along the stream, beginning at the pocket park behind the Harrisonburg Police Station to the lumber yard behind the Daily News Record building. I counted 27 dead fish ranging in size from about 6 to 12 inches in length, and one dead rat in the stream. These were all located between Liberty Street and Bruce Street in Blacks Run, with the great majority of them located above Water Street in an area where the stream emerges from a tunnel coming from the Liberty and Market Streets intersection. The local ducks have been eating them. About 100 yards downstream from the dead fish, I saw plenty of live fish of all sizes. I located a cleaning company, Squeeky Clean, of Dayton, pressure spraying the Rockingham County Sheriffs Dept/ Jail building on the corner of Liberty and Market Streets. This was about 120 yards upstream from the first dead fish. The wash water was coming off the building and flowing directly into a storm drain on this corner, which leads directly to Blacks Run, which is hidden below the street and buildings in this area. There was a foamy buildup at the drain grate. I photographed the cleaning operation, and the labels on a corrosive chemical barrel sitting on the street next to the company vehicles. I then read the warnings on the label of the barrel, which contained Roxxon Twelve Plus, 12.5% Sodium Hypochlorite. This is a federally controlled pesticide/cleaner, and the label clearly states in capital letters that “IT IS A VIOLATION OF FEDERAL LAW TO USE THIS PRODUCT IN A MANNER INCONSISTANT WITH ITS LABELING” Further down on the label, under ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS, it states “ This pesticide is toxic to fish and aquatic organisms. Do not discharge effluent containing this product into lakes, streams, ponds, estuaries, oceans, or other waters… Do not discharge effluent containing this product to sewer systems without previously notifying the local sewage treatment plant authority.” The owner of the cleaning company, Dan Link spoke with me about the situation. I notified him that he was in violation of federal law by using this product at this location in this manner. He said he was not aware that there was a stream below the street. It is not visible from this part of the city. He stated that he would put the chemical back on the truck and only spray water on the building from here on. He also stated that he always uses this chemical to clean buildings. The company was also using Roof Snot, a foaming detergent additive with Amine Oxide compound. Mr. Link was cooperative and appeared to be concerned about the fish kill, which he understood was probably his fault. I notified the Daily News Record newspaper and WHSV TV about the fish kill. The newspaper interviewed me by phone, and ran an article on the incident in Monday’s paper 8/4/2014. I met the TV reporter at the stream for an on-camera interview. At the conclusion of that interview, I noticed that small fish were beginning to move back into the area where the dead fish were found, about 8 hours after the cleaning company stopped discharging the chemical into the stream. Conclusion: Blacks Run is recovering from the chemical poisoning that appears to have happened by accident. Warning signs indicating a live stream below the street would have been helpful in preventing this sort of incident.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 23:38:51 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015