Posted on 10/16/2001 11:11:17 PM PDT by LibWhacker
San Joaquin River Hit By 'Environmental Nightmare'Thousands Of Fish Turn Up Dead
Posted: 9:09 p.m. PDT October 16, 2001
Updated: 11:01 p.m. PDT October 16, 2001
San Joaquin County -- Thousands of fish are washing up on the banks of the San Joaquin River in what is turning out to be an environmental mystery.
They were first spotted Tuesday afternoon near the Mossdale "Y" in San Joaquin County.
At least four kinds of fish have been found floating in the river. And Fish and Game officials are testing some of the fish and the water after what a sheriff's sergeant calls an "environmental nightmare."
Gerald Smith moved to the Mossdale Marina years ago because he loves to fish.
"All of this, and you seldom see them in here just on top of the water," Smith said.
Thousands of shad, salmon, catfish and striper washed up on to boat ramps and river edges.
"I've seen smaller kills but nothing this big," San Joaquin Sheriff's boat patrol Sgt. Ray Walters said.
The dead fish stretch along the San Joaquin River from the marina as far as 10 miles upstream.
Sheriff's deputies went on the water along with State Fish and Game, but they found no signs of bloating or decay.
Officials have two theories about what went wrong. They think it could have been some sort of industrial chemical leak, or perhaps a simple but dramatic act of nature.
"Sometimes when you don't have a lot of flow coming through, and you have a weather change, maybe you have a real hot day, the oxygen level drops in the waterway," Walters said.
The sheriff's department said that those who use well water around the area can go ahead and keep using it. No humans have been reported sick. But with the marina being a popular spot for fishing, boating and for some living near, authorities say while they look for a cause, use the fish as a guide and stay out of the water.
Deputies and Fish and Game wardens may return Wednesday as they continue searching for a cause of the mystery.
Remember when Southern Pacific took a curve too fast and dumped a rail car loaded with Vapam (herbicide) into the upper Sacramento River?
Here's an excerpt of a report:
INCIDENT REPORT
Dunsmuir, CA 1991
Southern Pacific Derailment Spills Herbicide into a River
Source: Except as otherwise noted excerpted with permission from Jim Martin, The Dead River: A Visit to the 1991 Dunsmuir Toxic Spill.
Under a new moon on Sunday, July 14th, 1991, a Southern Pacific freight train was laboring up and around Cantara Loop... It was a long train, ninety-five cars in all and only eleven of them were loaded. The rear end of the train was weighted by six heavy gondolas full of scrap metal. Eighty-four empty cars connected the scrap metal to the payload towards the front. One of the tankers in the payload contained a soil sterilizer with the trade name Vapam, or metam sodium. As the torque of the load increased around the tight loop, an engine jumped its rails, snake- whipping the train behind it. Some of the cars were forced to the right of the rails, others to the left, gouging a quarter-mile of skid marks into the ties in the rail bed as the train came to a halt. Before it did, an engine and the tanker full of metam sodium toppled off the bridge into the Upper Sacramento River.
[The pesticide spilled into the Upper Sacramento River caused massive fishkills, and damaged vegetation over 42 miles. It also migrated to Lake Shasta, California's largest reservoir. Hundreds of thousands of fish were killed, about 700 people reportedly became sick. ]
I lived in Northern California then. What a disaster it was, ecologically, financially, and health-wise.
I'm glad you found this reference because it shows the comparative size of the two disasters: Dunsmuir killed vegetation along a 42 mile stretch of that river while this present disaster has killed off fish along a 10 mile stretch -- in only a few hours. It may be natural. It may be an industrial or agricultural accident. But I don't believe in coincidences. Had too much probability.
Or "germing"
Non bacterial?
My thoughts exactly. What tipped me off was the animal waste run-off. If you want to be scared sh*tless, check out last month's issue of Maxim. It's a long and thorough article all about pfiesteria and some of the fish-kills that have occured down in the Carolinas.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.