Georgia wildlife and environmental officials are trying to determine the cause of a fish kill in Commissioner Creek in Wilkinson County.
In all, 4,000 to 5,000 dead fish were found in about a nine-mile stretch of the creek and its tributary, Little Commissioner Creek, on Sept. 28 and 29, said Steve Schleiger, regional supervisor for the west central Georgia fisheries section of the state Wildlife Resources Division.
He estimated that 30 to 40 percent of the fish in the creek between McIntyre and the Toomsboro area died, and the surviving fish appeared disoriented and listless.
“There’s no real smoking gun,” Schleiger said. “The problem is the whole watershed is degraded. ... I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to say definitively who caused it.”
Schleiger said the acidity of the stream was high, but that alone did not seem to have killed the fish. Aluminum in the water may have been high, which is toxic to fish when combined with high acidity.
Ben Emmanuel, the Oconee projects coordinator for the environmental advocacy group Altamaha Riverkeeper, said he spent Sept. 30 observing Commissioner Creek, which “had an unusual ultramarine color to it and was really uncommonly clear,” he said.
“The visuals were pretty striking,” he said. “I’m told one of the things that can cause that appearance is alum, which is used in some settling ponds at kaolin processing facilities.”
“It may have been related to the kaolin mining industry,” Schleiger said. “The chemicals they use can change the (acidity) of the water. That’s probably the most likely possibility, but we won’t know until we rule out disease as a cause.”
To do that, fish tissue samples have been sent to Auburn University to analyze, and the state expects results within days, Schleiger said.
He said he investigated a very small fish kill with very similar clear, acidic water four or five years ago in Little Commissioner Creek. The cause was never determined.
Kevin Chambers, communications director for the state Environmental Protection Division, said in an e-mail that EPD officials took water samples and visited the facilities that have permits to release water into the stream system. The EPD is evaluating the operational data it collected.
Among those facilities are two kaolin processors -- BASF Catalyst and Unimin Corp. -- as well as a kaolin-related Carbo Ceramics plant, a Gordon sewage treatment plant and two Wilkinson County schools, according to EPD documents. There are nine discharge permits in all.
“One thing that does strike me about Commissioner Creek is there are a lot of discharges on a fairly small stream,” Emmanuel said. He said he has concerns about the way EPD structures wastewater permits, how rarely it updates them, and its monitoring and enforcement of the permits. Emmanuel said the fish kill was very visible near the Ga. 112 bridge near Toomsboro and at Wriley Road, where people sometimes fish. He said the fish were continuing to die several days after dead fish began to appear.
Chambers said the area is remote and not heavily used for recreation, and there are no public drinking water sources nearby.
“The current fish population appears to be healthy,” Chambers wrote in his e-mail. He said EPD officials walked the stream as recently as Tuesday.
Schleiger characterized the fish kill as “low- to medium-sized.”
To contact writer S. Heather Duncan, call 744-4225.
