My favorite creek KILLED

FAOL Community Conservation
1

Boy am I bummed.

Late last summer I found a great little fishing spot. It was a creek flowing out of Lake Lawtonka, down Medicine Creek, with a low water damn to hold water year round. This is important in SW Okla. due to sparce rain.

Any who. This creek was clear (again, unusual for around here), just the right size to fish, and easy access, since it flowed through the little town of Medicine Park. AND, most importantly, stuffed with BG, Stripe Bass, LMB, catfish, Carp…and Crappie! Most days there were 30 to 50 fish days. And a “watering hole” just few yards from the creek when a feller got hot and thirsty.

Then two weeks ago I show up ready for my Sat fishing, I cast a few times with no bites, oh well, kinda slow i thought. Then a couple setting in the shade says, “there’s no fish in there.” I think to myself, “yeah, not many, I only catch fish till I’m tired every time I’m here.”

Thanks, I say and the lady says, “no, really, they had a cholorine spill last week at the water treatment plant, and killed EVERYTHING in the creek.”

Talk about deflating me. I reel in, go inside the “watering hole” and ask. Yup.The owner says the water treatment plant up stream by the lake damn had a big cholorine leak, and killed everything in the creek, big fish, small fish, clams…etc…everything…AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH.

So, my question is, how long will it take for this to come back(of course depending what methods are used)? I’m sure there is going to be a lawsuit, but you know what they say about sueing city hall.

2

Aw no, not letting you off so easy. How about finding out exactly how and how-come it happened. Who is getting sued. Get involved. Become part of the solution and report on here. If not you; who should? Our group stopped a huge chemical plant, and I’m damn proud to have been even a small part of it. Now, is it your turn?

3

Cat, if you want to know what a whole-stream restoration can be like after a spill, do some research on the Cantera spill on the upper Sacramento many years ago. Trout stream, not a warmwater stream like yours, but a similar event.

Chlorine isn’t persistent, which means that the stream should start healing again immediately, with life moving down from the unaffected areas above the spill, and from below where the spill killed everything, and from tribs, and so forth. It might never be exactly as you remember it, tho.

Get involved, make sure that the responsible parties fess up and do their part to make things right again.

Dennis

4

Nothing like the press for getting the word out. Has it been in the local news? Sounds like it was bad enough that it should have hit the papers by now. If not call them. They love a good cover up story more than anything.

Hah! took a while but I found it.

http://www.kswo.com/Global/story.asp?S=7585444

What is really scarey is that this is not the first time the clorine tank leaked and there seems to have been a reluctance to do a proper fix then and again now. Foot dragging from the city up stream from Medicine Park.

5

I did some research on this subject and I just want to share an opinion from a Forum I read. The person said “their lake got poisoned by chlorine and the fish came back bigger than before.” Opinion & Quote.
Doug

6

Yep!
Thanks for the link, it tells the story much better than me.

And believe me JC, I am staying involved, and I even told and showed 2 reporters from Wichita Falls (about 50 miles away, and Lawton’s biggest rivial city) last week. I have their e-mails and a cell phone # of the anchor.

As I said before though, the town of Medicine Park and Lawton don’t get along too well,and it is feared that Lawton will not do the right thing…believe me from whom I’ve talked to, if they don’t, the stink raised by all, will be more than what the fish caused.

7

Doug,

I hope you are right, can you give me some info about the situation you are talking about, and what exctly they did to help it come back?

8

Cat, this isn’t a city/county issue, this is a fish and game department issue, a department of environmental quality issue, and so on. Call the local fish and game guy, then the state office, then the health department (Chlorine is as good at killing people as it is fish)…

9

The reason I only posted that info, was because it was just a short blog that did not go into any details.
I will continue to search for more info.
Doug

10

Cat, take it slow, but get it right. DG should have good info on this for you. Get others involved there at home too.

11

Montana may be an eviromental backwater but our state D.E.Q. would have our butts in a sling for an illegal chlorine discharge.{fines and possible loss of our operators licenses}It’s a shame somebody didn’t get a sample to test the chlorine level. Based on the chlorine level the flowrate of the creek and the time from spill to testing you could get a fairly close estimate of how much chlorine was spilled.Here in Mt. to be discharged into a waterway the water has to be dechlorinated prior to discharge,if I remember right the most common agent for dechlorination is sodium thiosulfate.Above 1-MG/L chlorine is hazardous to aquatic life.
chlorine also dissipates{more effective disinfectant} quicker in warm water.For the chlorine to reach the stream either there was an extreme operator error, major mechanical failure or lack of backflow/antisiphon protection so hopefully your state regulatory agency will be on the water system like a bad haircut on Don King.

12

I read about a Chinese Chlorine spill that was catastrophic. They used Caustic Soda to clean up the Chlorine. I read that Chlorine dissipates faster in warm water, but I already knew that since I’ve owned a Hot Tub. I suppose that if the Chlorine spills into a river and kills all the fish, then as soon as the Chlorine dissipates, then the river can be stocked again?
Articles; Merk Co. Fined;http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/merck-chemical-spill-47121405
Paper Mills & Chlorine;http://www.georgiastrait.org/?q=node/541
Pulp & Pollution;http://www.rfu.org/cacw/PulpPrimer.htm
Doug

13

Thanks to all for the info. I have a call into the OK dept of wildlife.

14

Hey there Carl… I was there a few years back when the train derailed on the Cantara Loop and went into the Upper Sacramento. The Cantara Loop is an Infamous stretch of track just north of Dunsmuir, CA. Hunt up the Dunsmuir website, and you can probably get all the details from their local newspaper there. It was a BIG deal. It killed every fish downstream of the spill for many miles. They did a very thorough cleanup, and now, about 15 years later, the stream has fully recovered. I believe there were catchable trout there in about five years. I fished the river there a lot before the spill and it was a very good trout stream. I was back there fishing about seven years after the spill, and caught fish, but the streamside vegetation was still not back fully at that time. The spill wiped that out as well for a for miles. That spill was not chlorine, but some other more nasty chemical, and the derailed train laid there in the river for several days before they got it dragged out.
There was diesel fuel and other stuff involved as well. Good news is, the upper Sac. is back in spades, and has been for some time now. Your stream will recover too, faster if it gets proper help…ModocDan

15

I would think that with chlorene that the stream would be inhabital again in a week or two. a local fishing group or individual with the approval of fish and game could probably speed up the process of revitalizing it by bringing some insects from above the spill down streem and releasing them. and then next year doing some approved catch above the spill and release in the spill area.

sounds like someone at your water treatment facility needs a good swift kick

Eric

16

Cat,
Seems like your getting your ducks in a row. I googled the area; and from your general description see that Fort Sill is nearby? If any part of your creek runs through or along side the base I would imagine someone in EPA or Federal Parks should be able to lend a hand.

Good Luck on your endevors,
Just post if you need a letter writing nudge.

JIm

17

Back in the early 90’s a gold mining company on the South Coast of Newfoundland had a huge cyanide leak that ran into a salmon river called “Cinq Cerf”. It did some serious damage to the river and the commercial inshore fishing grounds it emptied into. However, the salmon and trout have rebounded beutifully and the inshore fishery in that area is more prolific than in many of the other areas along the coast between Rose Blanche and Burgeo. Is this typical of the aftermath of spills? No…but I hope it gives you some hope and a will to fight for habitat remediation and better spill prevention.
The gold mining company in this story really stepped up and my friend is still getting flown in by helicopter once a month to do water quality sampling to ensure that the remaining tailings ponds left after the company moved on, are not leaking. If the folks responsible for this do the same, your creek may also rebound in relatively short order.

Brad

18

WOW, good point, as a matter of fact, Ft Sill is just over the hill from the spill, and the creek runs through Ft Sill futher down stream, (I think, I’ll have to check for sure)…contacting the EPA might really be the ticket…no one likes to hear the word EPA when they’ve done something wrong.

Great advise, thanks

19

Definitely contact the EPA. Polluting the waters of the United States is a major issue to them and trust me, they will not take it lightly if it’s a municipal water company. If this has happened before then it’s doubly important to get them involved. That water company gets a consent decree against them from the EPA & they’ll make sure that tank doesn’t leak anymore I’ll gaurantee you that.