Community Corner

Fish Kill In Cedar Creek a Mystery

Test results do not indicate what led to 100 dead fish there in April, DEP spokesman said.

Investigators have been unable to determine what killed about 100 fish, mostly trout, in Cedar Creek three weeks ago.

Test results are back, but Mark Carmon, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said the results do not show anything that would account for the fish kill.

"We sampled for water chemistry (pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature, biological oxygen demand), pesticides, herbicides and volatile organics," he said in an e-mail. 

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The Pennsylvania Fish Commission, also investigating, was at a dead end too, he said.

The dead fish were found April 10 about a mile and a quarter downstream from . The DEP's Emergency Response Team and the Pennsylvania Fish Commission conducted the field tests at the site that morning.

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While a mystery, Carmon said authorities from time to time are unable to explain a fish kill, especially if a slug of something went downstream quickly.

He said a "strange thing" was that DEP's Water Quality specialist and the Fish Commission saw living fish swimming in and among the dead ones that morning.

Authorities had checked with Dorney Park at the time, but there were no discharges or water usage, Carmon had said.


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