Fish Kill Event - Roberts Creek

Doug Hawker and Tom McCarthy have reported in from a fish kill they were investigating on Roberts Creek in Clayton County. The fish kill was called in earlier today and Doug and Tom have been in the process of tracing it back to its source, determining the responsible party and the cause. Doug and Tom had the following to report: The fish kill was caused by hog manure released from confinement operation. The manure release occurred when employee pulled the plug on a manure storage pit. Manure from this pit which is located under the confinement building is normally allowed to flow into a outdoor pit for storage before being applied to neighboring fields. Unfortunately there was not enough capacity in the outdoor pit to accept all the manure that was discharged from the first pit. This resulted in the outdoor pit overflowing. The overflowing manure eventually reached Roberts Creek and caused a fish kill along a 2 to 2 ½ mile stretch. Van Sterner of the Decorah Hatchery was on site to assist in the investigation and conduct a fish count. Owner has now taken steps to stop the flow of manure from reaching Roberts Creek. The operation is located in Section 8 of Grand Meadow Township. The fish kill occurred in Sections 8,9,15 and 16 of Grand Meadow Township. The spill killed more than 8,000 fish in the creek, mostly non-game species.