Columbia, SC - (WLTX) An incident occurred near Olympia Park that killed hundreds of fish. Congaree Riverkeeper Bill Stangler and a team of investigators have determined the incident is classified as a fish kill.
Stangler says, "Fish kills are something that happens by natural conditions dissolved oxygen or temperature. Often times this is caused by pollution problems so were trying to figure out what caused this fish kill that killed over a hundred fish in this creek and it was probably pollution related and we're still trying to figure out what it was"
The Riverkeeper continues on by saying they, "This is the first time we've observed a fish kill here in Rocky Branch especially at this kind of scale covering a mile of creek with that many dead fish" says Stangler.
Connor O' Gara who lives right across the street from the park says. "I mean fish kills don't really seem good for the environment especially if something in nature is killing all these fish but then something is going wrong" says O' Gara.
Michael Jaspers, city of Columbia Storm Water Manager wants the community to be at ease and know they are safe to still visit the area.
"We don't have any indication that anyone should be concerned at this point. We are checking as part of our investigation to make sure there aren't any ongoing or lingering affects but we are pretty confident that there's no problem for human recreation" says Jaspers.
Department of Health and Environmental Control is investigating the incident and issued a statement that says,
DHEC responded to the fish kill on Rocky Branch at Olympia Park. The Department has been working in partnership with the Congaree Riverkeeper. At this time, the creek appears to have returned to normal. DHEC has not identified any direct impact on the Congaree River and does not believe there is or was any threat to human health.
Fish kills can be the result of any number of things both natural and manmade."