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Chemical runoff kills 5,600 fish in Colorado

Stephen Meyers
Fort Collins Coloradoan

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — More than 5,600 fish were killed last month in a Colorado river, the result of a chemical runoff from a bridge reconstruction project, according to state parks and wildlife officials.

Colorado Park and Wildlife employees use nets and electric probes to gather trout at the Big Thompson River Tuesday Sept. 30, 2014. CPW officials say a March chemical spill has killed thousands of fish in the river.

The agency announced Tuesday that the fish, including rainbow and brown trout, suckers and dace, died March 7 in the Big Thompson River and its North Fork, in an 8.3-mile section of the river, in the northern part of the state.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife is blaming the incident on a bridge project that is part of a reconstruction plan the state developed after September 2013 floods devastated the river corridor.

The die-off was initially reported by a citizen who noticed dead fish and gray water in a side creek of the river, according to High Country News, which first reported the fish kill Tuesday.

CPW waited to confirm the kill "until data had been thoroughly analyzed."

The loss of the fish is a big blow to the Big Thompson, a premier fly-fishing destination. Before the 2013 floods, recreational fishing on the river generated $4.3 million for the local economy.

On Wednesday, the conservation group Colorado Trout Unlimited issued a statement in response to the spill:

“This is body blow to the Big Thompson that sets back efforts by several partners, including TU, to restore the wild trout population in the canyon,” said executive director David Nickum. “The Big T is a very famous and popular river with anglers, and we’re deeply concerned about how an accident of this magnitude could have happened."

The Big Thompson incident follows news of other fish kills around the nation. A massive fish kill was reported in the Indian River Lagoon in Florida earlier in April, where an algae bloom was blamed for the deaths of thousands of fish. The die-off has biologists worried about the ripple effects on other marine species in the lagoon.

In Tennessee, a broken sewage line recently dumped millions of gallons of wastewater into a Mississippi River tributary, causing a major fish kill in McKellar Lake near Memphis.

While details of the Colorado fish kill are still being analyzed, CPW said the event was associated with concrete work being performed in building and securing rock walls along a road and replacement of a nearby bridge which spans the lower North Fork. Chemicals from the concrete entered the stream, CPW said, causing a dramatic increase in the acidity of the water which sickened or killed fish in its path.

Colorado Trout Unlimited's local chapters in nearby Estes Park and Fort Collins have been involved in habitat improvement projects, including planting willows, to help the Big Thompson recover from the flood damage.

“We’re deeply disappointed that recovery work we’ve done since the flooding has taken a big hit,” said Wil Huett, president of TU’s Rocky Mountain Flycasters chapter in Fort Collins. “We’ll get back to work to rebuild habitat and fish populations in the river, but this is a major setback.”

Xplore reporter Stephen Meyers covers the outdoors and recreation for the Coloradoan. Follow him on Twitter @stemeyer or @XploreNoCo.

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