Rt 78 detergent spill= fish kill 5/5/16:

[AndyS]

Around 6am yesterday an accident on 78 caused a truck to spill its load of detergent which was then washed into a storm drain and has caused a major fish kill on the West Portal Brook.

[icebadger]

who is gonna pay for that,i thought it was against the law to wash hazmats down a storm drain.how far will that affect the water down stream.what a f#*k up

[henro]

What a shame...

[acabtp]

Originally Posted by icebadger

i thought it was against the law to wash hazmats down a storm drain

it was raining yesterday, nobody washed them down the drain on purpose

[icebadger]

aren't they supposed to block off the storm drains in case of an accident? it wasn't raining that hard at 6 am. i realize that some contaminants are gonna get washed down by accident . but if the whole truckload went in there alot of fish are doomed and how long will the body of water be affected. i wasn't saying someone purposely put it there it was a terrible accident and its affects might have been reduced

[SaltLife1980]

That sucks big time. All those fish gone..

[buzzbaiter]

I've fished that creek a few times. Not much open water as it mostly runs through private property. Despite its small size(4-8' wide), it holds a surprisingly amount of wild browns and a few native brookies. Normally I'm the doomsayer but given that the upper part of the creek was not affected, the creek will be okay moving forward. Surviving trout will drift downstream (and move up from the Musky & nearby tribs) and fill in the empty niches. A few good spawns and things will be back to normal. Trout are there for a reason and they will return. For now it sucks. Hate seeing dead trout like that

[buzzbaiter]

Also, one of our fisheries biologists is been out there the last two days assessing the situation. I imagine for her its especially troubling. I've witnessed winter kills with hundreds of dead bass and sunfish. For an angler, these sort of mass kills are nightmares come true.

[NJSquatch]

Terrible.

[River Renegade]

Where's that dislike button at...