Indiana officials uncertain of fish kill cause
June 19, 2012 2:36PM
Maps
DALEVILLE (AP) — Indiana environmental agencies expect it will be a couple of weeks before investigators know what caused a fish kill along a 4-mile stretch of a central Indiana stream.
Department of Natural Resources spokesman Phil Bloom told The Star Press for a story Tuesday that investigators didn’t yet know how many fish died last week. But the agency said the kill appears to have affected all fish species in that section of Bell Creek east of Daleville in Delaware County.
Preliminary tests ruled out manure as a cause for the kill in the stream a few miles southwest of Muncie.
Barry Sneed, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, said that whatever contaminated the stream wasn’t visible and had mixed with the water, which is being tested for pesticides and other chemicals.
“Since test results will be not available for approximately two weeks, there is no specific action that can be taken at this time except to monitor,” Sneed said.
IDEM didn’t immediately release a report on the fish kill.
“This is an ongoing incident, so the report will not be available until the emergency responder is able to confirm the test results and complete the report,” Sneed said.
