Death of Arco Fish Stirs Pollution Worry

The Brunswick News

In more than 60 years, Sara Smith had never seen anything like it.

Fish, dead ones, everywhere - in the canal near her house, in the pond near her house.

There were hundreds of them, large and small, and their odor drifted through the trees, across 8th Street and among the residences in the Arco area of Brunswick.

"I've lived here all my life, and this has never happened," she said Tuesday as she and her husband, Donald, stood near the pond.

Mr. Smith said he's not looking forward to the inevitable.

"Wait a couple of days and that smell will be really bad," he said.

On Tuesday, representatives from both the Georgia Department of Natural Resource's Coastal Resources and Environmental Protection divisions were on hand to try and assess the problem.

Area resident David Lipthratt expressed concern that, during recent flooding, toxins may have seeped into the water from the nearby LCP Chemical site, a public health hazard that is listed on the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund list. Other residents were worried about possible pollutants from the nearby Koch Cellulose pulp mill.

Don McHugh, an environmental engineer with the EPD, said he doubted that was the case.

"I would think (the cause) would be natural," he said. "But we'll take a look."

John Pafford, a program supervisor with the DNR's Coastal Resources Division, also suspects natural causes.

"We don't know for sure what may have caused it," he said. "But my initial thoughts are we've had a turnover."

A pond turnover will generally occur during the first few days of cooler weather or after several days of overcast skies, Pafford said.

The cooler temperatures cause the warmer water near the surface of the pond to mix with cooler, oxygen-deficient water near the bottom.

Such waters are unable to support oxygen-producing algae.

The resulting dip in the level of dissolved oxygen basically causes fish to asphyxiate; the decomposition of the dead fish robs the water of even more oxygen, and more fish die.

Pafford said the kill probably occurred one to two days ago.