Thousands of fish wiped out in 12-mile stretch of Black River
[b]JOHN FLESHER / Associated Press[/b]
Traverse City – Thousands of fish have been killed in the Black River in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, possibly because of an improper manure discharge from a farm, state officials said Wednesday.
Biologists described the die-off as among the biggest they had seen, said Robert McCann, spokesman for the Department of Environmental Quality. Nearly all fish in a 12-mile stretch of the river in Sanilac and St. Clair counties, along with other aquatic life, were wiped out, he said.
“Many of the fish lost in this incident were larger, older fish,” said Rebecca Humphries, director of the Department of Natural Resources. “This is a significant loss of a very diverse fishery in the Black River.”
Scientists with the DNR’s fisheries division were counting and classifying the dead fish. Among the game species were smallmouth and rock bass, channel catfish, northern pike and the greater racehorse. Many were 1 to 2 feet long. Also killed were smaller types such as darters.
A DNR survey in 2007 found more than two dozen species in the river, which contains cobble, boulders, gravel and sand.
“It was a very good, strong fish habitat until now,” DNR spokeswoman Mary Detloff said.
The river also has ecological value as a home for native mussel species at a time when invasive zebra and quagga mussels have overrun many waterways in the Great Lakes region. It wasn’t immediately clear how the contamination was affecting mussels, Detloff said.
Investigators were focusing on an apparent manure discharge from a field adjacent to Seymour Creek, an upstream tributary of the river. But DEQ officials said they needed to review all possible sources of the pollution before assigning blame.
“The damage caused by this incident is not only unfortunate, but completely unacceptable,” Director Steven Chester said. “While we cannot undo the damage that has already been done, the DEQ will continue to investigate the cause behind it and hold those responsible for it accountable.”
Michigan?s Department of Environmental Quality said Noll Dairy Farm is the source of manure that lead to a massive fish kill in the Black River last week.
Bob McCann, the DEQ?s spokesman, said officials saw the runoff from the Croswell family farm going into a creek that flows to the Black River.
?It was still running when we got there last week, but at this point it has stopped,? McCann said.
At this time, McCann said it is unclear if the farm will face fines.
?We need to figure out why and how it happened before we can get to that point,? he said.
The fish kill killed thousands of fish in the river throughout a 12-miles stretch from about 3 miles south of Croswell in Sanilac County to the middle of the Port Huron State Game Area in St. Clair County.
Officials estimated a total wipe out of the two dozen species that lived in the area.
A person who answered the phone at the farm said the family would not have a comment.
The Noll Dairy Farm started in 1925 and is now on its fourth generation, according Michigan Farmer.
In 2008, the group reported that the family farm has 140 milk cows and was working to get up to 220.
It said the farm also raises 100 to 125 feeder steers each year and also farms 2,000 acres of corn, soybean, wheat, sugar and alfalfa.
Michigan Farmer also reported that: ?As for environmental concerns, ?We take a proactive approach,? Michael (Noll) says. ?We don?t spread manure in the winter; we spread on wheat stubble in the summer. We use it all on our own land.??
Wednesday, August 19, 2009 Fish kill blamed on dairy farm runoff
[b]Jim Lynch / The Detroit News[/b]
Croswell – Noll Dairy Farm Inc. is not the mammoth agricultural operation many had expected to find at the end of the evidence trail in last week’s Black River fish kill.
With only 200 head of cattle and a diversified number of products, the Noll farm is far from the large scale farming operation most often associated with harmful discharges.
But this week, Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality announced Noll Dairy was the source of the contamination that killed perhaps as many as 200,000 fish. Early on in the investigation, state officials suspected the contaminant was manure coming from a farm near the Black River.
“We observed the runoff coming from (Noll Dairy),” said Robert McCann, DEQ’s spokesman. “So now we’re trying to figure out what the circumstances were that led to that runoff. It flowed into a creek near the farm that led to the river.”
For several Department of Natural Resources workers, the sheer number of dead fish that turned up last week was a shock.
Gary Towns of the DNR’s fisheries division said last week that “in my 30 years as a fish biologist, this is probably the largest (fish kill) I’ve ever seen.”
Among the species of fish found floating along the banks of the river were smallmouth bass, catfish, northern pike, rock bass, sunfish, suckers, minnows and darters.
Mark Noll of Noll Dairy declined to discuss in detail the events that led to the discharge, but described what happened as an “accident.”
The farm, he said, has been in operation since 1925 and had never been involved in a major environmental event. Last year, the Michigan Farm Bureau recognized Noll Dairy for its conservation efforts.
“This is no different than when one of the municipalities’ sewer systems overflows,” Noll said. “We had a discharge. We’re not permitted to do that.”
The DNR and the DEQ are considering if any penalties are warranted.
“If we find someone is indeed the cause of this, they’re going to be held responsible for it,” McCann said.
hmmmmm… maybe the trout and sturgeon missed this one…
That is really a sad thing to have happened. I lived around there in the late 60’s and spent many happy hours fishing the Black River. There were mussels the size of lunch plates in the river back then and some pretty decent smallmouth. Sorry to hear this happened.
Mato, would you please keep us posted on developements on the Black?
Something like that happened on a previous home water and i wasn’t able
to fish it for several years. It was better than ever once it was reopened
though. Largely due to the tributaries not being affected.
Over the years I have read numerous reports of water contamination from feedlot excrement holding ponds. This does not have to be, there is old technology the the Local Farm Bureaus have had available for safe conversion of animal waste into liquid methane that can be used for drying crops, running equipment, and heating work buildings and animal shelters. The processed animal by product after the methane removal, is dry granulated fertilizer that can be applied to the land and not burn the crops.
I use to do this when working on Mr. Petersen’s Farm in the 1950’s. It ran his tractors, cooked his food, dried his crops. The only electricity on his farm was the 6 volt battery for the radio in the Milking Barn, to listen to Farm Market Reports while milking the dairy cows.
There is no reason for these toxic holding tanks and reservoirs. It is not the expensive to setup or operate. The savings from recycling this waste is money in the bank, and is just one way of cutting down on our dependency on foreign oil! ~Parnelli
"PS: Methane can be converted into “Natural Gas”! "
I always thought “methane” was natural gas.
This is coming from a champion farter. I’ve cleared many a room in my day. :twisted:
Since 1925…
That’s a long time for stuff to build up. Must have been a big rainstorm that washed enough into the tributary creek to wipe out the fishes.
Very tragic turn of events. For the dairy farm, the resource of the fishes, and all involved.
Gives a whole new meaning to the term…
Shiit Happens.
Odd that it was enough to wipe out all of those fish. Had to be one heck of a concentration.
One has to wonder how many of those estimated 200,000 were trash fish like suckers.
No dought that somebodies gonna loose a farm. Damned shame.
Mojo, be careful about passing judgment on the farm and its owners before a full investigation is complete. Put you and your family in their shoes and see if you would like for people to demand you be stripped of all that you and your family have worked for, over something that might have been completely out of your control. Think of a family (maybe your family) put on the street with nothing but the clothes on their backs over some dead fish, just so some fishermen can get the stream repaired quickly by “the state” and get back to their recreation. The owner was quoted as saying this was an accident, so we need to give people the benefit of the doubt before hanging them out for a public flogging. How would you like hear that your family business (and your only livelihood) is being wiped out by the “STATE” because of an accident, out of your control, that killed some fish and other critters? Would you willingly hand yourself over to have everything you own stripped from you because of it, or would you be looking for some empathy from your fellow man? What have we come to as a people when we are supportive of the state’s destruction of family livlihoods over the loss of some fish? Nature will repair herself over time, but can the same be said of a family and its business that was taken from them? Knowing a bit about Michigan, the judgement would probably go into the General Fund and never make it to the DNR anyway, so it would be an effort in futility and the stream would be left to repair itself.
Perhaps we need to look less to the state for answers, and put on our own thinking caps and come to the rescue. I seriously doubt there was malicious intent involved here, so let’s not start sounding alarmist like PETA. The sanctity of the family and human lives should always come before anything else, in spite of some fishermen being inconvenienced while the stream repairs itself.
Just my 2 cents, and I apologize if this has any political undertones. I fully understand that this post may be removed for that reason.
Well stated, Joe.
And it may have been that Mother Nature played a cruel hand in the accident that messed up the river.
Judgment is best left up to the final judge.
