Fish Kill Event - Big Sioux River
at Westfield
- Event ID
- 510
- Date of Kill
- 7/12/2002
- Waterbody Type
- River/Stream
- Cause Origin
- Natural
- Cause
- Environmental
- Mode
- N/A
- Magnitude
- 2 (101 - 1000 fish killed)
- Estimated Fish Killed
- 144
- Kill Length
- 7.00 miles
- Valuation
- $931.06
- County
- Plymouth
- ESD Field Office
- FO 3
- Fisheries Office
- Spirit Lake Hatchery
- LongDD
- -96.63151
- LatDD
- 42.76075
- Created Date
- 7/22/2002 12:00:00 AM
- Last Update
- 2/21/2019 1:19:33 PM
Highlighted river segments indicate those impacted in part or whole by this fish kill event. It is not meant to represent the actual extent of the kill.
About 8:00 A.M., 12 July I received a fish kill report from John Sells, local CO, about a fish kill on the Big Sioux River in Plymouth Co.. Bert Knoll and myself proceeded to the site and Mike Hawkins and Juan Cordona followed about a half hour later. The site was downstream of the Westfield access off of Highway #3. On our way over we communicated with Jeff Prior (EPD#3) who was on site with John and Jennifer Sells. They were out on the river taking water samples and looking at dead fish. Preliminary indications were thousands of dead fish but our investigation did not result in those kinds of numbers. We met Prior, the Sells and Todd St Sauver, So Dakota GFP (Fisheries), at the Westfield access at. approximately 11:30. After some discussion Bert Knoll, Mike Hawkins, Juan Cordona and myself proceeded down river to assess the kill. We went by boat because of the lack of access on this particular stretch of stream and decided to count fish at snag piles where the fish had accumulated. The kill appeared to be at least two to three days old indicated by the condition of the fish. DO results were .5 ppm, leading investigators to believe this was a natural kill.