A fish kill has grown larger since first being spotted on Saturday in northwest Iowa. The Department of Natural Resources reports heavy rain caused a manure discharge from the Summit Dairy in O’Brien County to eventually reach Mill Creek. DNR senior environmental specialist Tom Roos (rhymes with ‘loose’) says the fish kill now stretches about 12 miles, from near Paulina to the Cherokee County line. It remains unclear how many fish the manure spill has killed.
Roos says Summit Dairy had dug a trench to redirect rain from a construction site, which contributed to the fish kill.
After the DNR traced the incident to Summit Dairy, workers responded by redirecting the runoff to a basin and added a berm to prevent further discharges to the stream. The dead and dying fish include suckers, minnows, darters, shiners, catfish, small largemouth bass, and madtoms.
