Rock River Fish Kill!

Many of you may or may not of heard of the fish kill on the Rock River below Rockford. But I’m here to tell you how bad it is. It extends from Rockford all the way to the Quad-cities. I live in Rockfalls and there are thousands of dead fish in the river. Everything from catfish,carp flatheads, Walleyes, and Bass. This is an extensive fish kill. The DOC isn’t saying much until they find out exactly who or what is responsable but the leading suspect is the train derailment in Rockford Fri. The contents of the train got dumped into the Kisswalkee River which leads to the Rock. This is a massive fish kill and will harm this river for a long time. The Walleye and Smallmouth fishing that has been so good for the last few years is wiped out. The people who worked so hard to bring the nations attention with the Cabela’s Big Cat Tournaments to this area is all in vain. This is a real shame and at this point I don’t know what anybody can do but hang their heads and hope things will get better.

Sorry to hear about this. My condolences. It’s a minor consolation, but at least in a river the populations have a better time coming back than a lake.

http://www.wgntv.com/news/wgntv-fish-kill-tied-to-train-derailment-june22,0,2287256.story

Fish kill in Rock River tied to train derailment?
Investigators are looking into whether a fiery train derailment in Rockford over the weekend caused a fish kill on the Rock River in northwestern Illinois.

The Associated Press

June 22, 2009
Investigators are looking into whether a fiery train derailment in Rockford over the weekend caused a fish kill on the Rock River in northwestern Illinois.

Sgt. Carl Lewis of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources says the agency is trying to determine if run-off from the derailment got into the Kishaukee River, which flows into the Rock River. The state is advising the public not to eat fish from the Rock River in Ogle, Lee and Whiteside counties until the cause is determined.

The train was carrying ethanol. The derailment Friday caused an explosion that killed one person.

The Department of Natural Resources is working with the state Environmental Protection Agency and the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.

What a shame. Sad news indeed.

I know right where that train derailed and where the kish is compared to it. It doesn’t add up, but I suppose it’s possible. Regardless, this entire situation is a tragedy.

I was up in oregon today and came down highway 2 along river it is unreal the shore lines are completley covered with fish dead or dyin there cant be a single fish left alive. this realy sucks! Iam very curious how much other wild life it will destroy like birds and coon and stuff that eat the fish, I guess they found five deer down by lyndon layin on the bank. if they died from drinkin the water that must be some realy bad stuff if they didnt even make it away from the water before dyin.

What’s really funny about this is that the EPA conducted some water tests on the Kisswakee and found no pollution or contamination? So maybe it wasn’t the derailment that caused the kill. But what ever it was, it’s BAD, real BAD.

Sad new for sure. I spent my fair share of time growing up on that river.