Forwarded by Jane Clark

FISH KILL TOPS 1 MILLION FISH FROM AMMONIA SPILL

LIVERMORE ? The final count of dead fish relating to an ammonia spill in
Kossuth and Humboldt Counties last week was estimated at 1.295 million fish,
more than twice the amount of the previous high recorded for an
accident-related spill in Iowa.

The fish kill, caused by a ruptured pipeline of anhydrous ammonia near
Whittemore on Dec. 14, killed 1,156,066 fish along 31 miles of Lotts Creek
valued at $118,431. The partial kill occurring along approximately 17 miles
of the East Fork of the Des Moines River totaled 139,139 fish valued at
$29,282. The total for the two waterbodies was 1,295,205 fish valued at
$147,731.

The DNR has been data basing fish kill information since the 1980s and this
is the highest total recorded since that information has been collected. The
previous high recorded for a man-made spill was in Winnebago and Kossuth
Counties in 1996 from a manure spill that killed approximately 586,000 fish.
A natural fish kill due to oxygen depletion occurred in 1989 at Coralville
Reservoir that killed an estimated 1 million fish.

Despite the large fish loss, the incident at Lotts Creek and the East Fork
of the Des Moines River could have been worse. A dam constructed near the
confluence of the creek and the East Fork prevented the toll on fish from
going even higher had the contamination been allowed to go unimpeded further
downstream.

The DNR will seek fish restitution money for the fish killed from the
appropriate responsible party. An investigation into the incident is
continuing and further enforcement actions may be taken at a later time.

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