Chemical Accident kills hundreds of fish

Betsy Anderson and her husband, Mel Battle, wer walking on the Little Sugar Creek Greenway on Saturday morning when they noticed that nothing was moving.

"There were just dead fish all over the place," Anderson said.

Hundreds of them dies, from Carolinas Medical Center toward Freedom Park, after chemicals that were being used in pressure-washing leaked into the creek, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Stormwater Management officials.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police and the Charlotte Fire Department were alerted early Saturday; a hazardous-materials team tested the water and determined there was no immediate threat to the public, to workers or to nearby businesses, said Rob Brisley, spokesman for the Charlotte Fire Department.

The fish weren't so fortunate.

CMC had hired ValleyCrest Landscape Maintenance to pressure-was new concrete on its property. ValleyCrest violated city and state laws by using an acidic chemical compound as part of its pressure-washing, said Rusty Rozzelle, water quality program manager with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Stormwater Management.

The acidic chemical lowered the pH levels in the water to 6 (7 to 9 is normal for the creek), killing the fish.

ValleyCrest agreed to remove the dead fish and could face up to a $10,000 fine, Rozelle said.

ValleyCrest officials could not be reached for comment Saturday evening. CMS co-operated with authorities to determine the cause, said Debra Pierce, vice president of marketing for CMC.

Commercial pressure-washing is not a violation of drought-related city or county water restrictions, Rozzelle said. But the drought is an aspect of the incident: Low water levels in the creek added to the problem, Rozelle said. The water flow was not sufficient to dilute the washing chemicals.

The pressure-washing lasted 11 hours, dumping the chemical from a stormwater drain near a CMC parking deck that faces the creek. Around noon Saturday, upstream from the drain, the water was clear and fish were alive; downstream, the water was clouded and the fish were dead.

 

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