Arco Fish Deaths Draw More Questions

The Brunswick News

Two weeks ago, when hundreds of dead fish floated to the surface of a pond and nearby canal in the Arco neighborhood of Brunswick, residents and scientists alike were hoping natural causes were to blame.

At the time, both John Pafford, program supervisor with the Department of Natural Resources' Coastal Resources Division, and Don McHugh, an environmental engineer with DNR's Environmental Protection Division, suspected the incident was likely due to a pond turnover.

A turnover is a common, natural condition that will often occur during the first few days of cooler weather and can cause the deaths of large numbers of fish.

But James Holland, founder of the environmental organization Altamaha Riverkeeper, has now said that such is not the case. Holland said that indicator tests conducted shortly after the kill revealed the presence of a much more disturbing situation.

"'We're talking raw sewage," he said. "Something bad happened. That's very clear. That much fecal bacteria didn't just happen to be there."

Holland said the lab analysis of water he collected from a marsh near the site indicates that there are 500,000 colonies of fecal coliform bacteria per 100 milliliters of water in the pond. An acceptable level is a few hundred.

The enterroccocus analysis, his report shows, reveals a level of 3,800. An acceptable level for it is only 104, he said. That's far more than a single errant septic tank could produce, he said.

"This is a massive amount. Wherever it came from, it's big," he said. "(Residents) should be very concerned that this amount of sewage can get in there. For crying out loud, they should be very concerned."

McHugh, however, is still waiting on EPD test results before he determines that fecal contamination is an issue. While he admits such a situation would deplete oxygen in a body of water and potentially kill large numbers of fish, he said he still considers a natural occurrence to be a possible cause.

"As far as I know, the fish kill still seems to be because of the unusual amount of rain we had," he said.

Repeated days of overcast and rainy weather and accompanying cooler weather could cause a turnover, in which the warmer water near the surface of the pond mixes 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.

McHugh said the kill may also have been caused by an influx of saltwater that washed into the pond during flooding.