Fish Kill Event - West Branch Pine Creek

The kill originated in Section 31, T90N, R8W, Buchanan County following the release of manure from a confined animal feeding operation. I was notified of this kill event at 11:10 on Tuesday, September 29, 2015 by Mark Winn with Iowa DNR-CRD who had been contacted by Sue Miller with Iowa DNR-ESD. We began fish kill assessment at 13:05 on Tuesday, September 29, 2015. Sue Miller indicated to us that she had observed dead fish from the County Road W33 Bridge, so we checked four bridges in Buchanan County over Pine Creek downstream of that site (D22, 205th Street, 192nd Street, 170th Street) in route to County Road W33. We confirmed Sue Miller’s observation of no dead fish at these sites and also observed that the stream became more turbid as we neared W33. We observed live fish from D22, 205th Street, and 192nd Street, but did not observe live or dead fish from 170th Street (the nearest downstream bridge to County Road W33). At County Road W33 we verified the presence of dead fish and also verified the presence of dead fish at the next upstream bridge crossing at 155th Street. We did not observe dead fish at the next upstream bridge crossing at 140th Street and the stream was running clear at that site. Mark Winn and I both had previously scheduled work meetings during the evening of September 29 that would be missed if we completed fish kill counts during the late afternoon hours, so we consulted weather forecasts that indicated clear weather and made the decision to complete the in-stream counts on the morning of September 30, 2015. It was determined that the fish kill area was incompletely accessible due to extreme turbidity caused by animal manure in the waterway, rough terrain over 2 miles of private property, and overhanging bank vegetation. A secchi disk reading of 10.5 inches was observed on the morning of September 30th at the 155th Street Bridge.