Valley Creek - fish kill

[AndyP]

There was a nice size water main break near the upper limits of Valley Creek and the water made its way into the stream. Chlorinated water and fish do not mix. I heard this evening from someone who was with the WCO that over 300 brown trout were collected in about 400 yards of stream. Collected as in dead. No villain here in my opinion just bad luck and a reminder of how fragile our ecosystem can be.

 

[huntfish]

SMH such a nice stream just too close to the city. What a shame.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Ouch!

 

[Fishidiot]

Thanks for the heads-up. Please keep us informed.

 

[AndyP]

To be accurate that distance is wrong. Meant to type 400 yards below rt. 202.

 

[salmo]

Does anybody know exactly where the water entered the stream? Please post.

 

[Bosshog]

Poor Valley creek just can't win. Whats this the 3rd or 4th time this has happened in the past 2-3 years?

 

[gozu]

It sounds like it may have entered close to the treatment plant on 401 by Ecology park.

 

[salmo]

I found a story on the 6 ABC website. The break was near the Chester Valley Golf Club. I've never fished that far up. Was it any good?

 

[salmonoid]

Bosshog wrote:
Poor Valley creek just can't win. Whats this the 3rd or 4th time this has happened in the past 2-3 years?

The last few were sewer main breaks.

 

[gozu]

Salmo, it's decent up that end, but very narrow and tight in some sections.

 

[geebee]

the villain is local and federal governments who won't renew antiquated water and sewer lines with modern replacements - modern plastic lines don't crack according to my dad who is a petrochemical engineer...

like everything else, if you want low taxes, then you pay for it with fish kills, and also power cuts in winter storms.

fortunately, VC seems to be a very resilient stream, it bounces back every time. lets hope it continues to do so...

 

[AndyP]

There are photos on our VFTU Facebook page. One of the brown trout is rather impressive, shame this happened. On the bright side it's nice to know that the number of fish in the stream does not correlate to my success catching them. Hopefully this section will rebound given time.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xft1/t31.0-8/fr/cp0/e15/q65/12615639_858019080975774_5550804929260648864_o.jpg?efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9

 

[jrj]

How far downstream will this impact? I had no idea that chlorinated water for consumption would have the ability to kill fish. Learn something new every day.

 

[outsider]

Wow, this just sucks. It shows once again how vulnerable so many of our streams are. A different scenario: how many roads parallel, cross streams. And a truck filled with whatever overturns and spills something toxic into the stream.

 

[sarce]

That does suck. Sad to hear of yet another accident on valley. Fortunately 300 trout is a small fraction of what's in there.

Someone mentioned the golf course, I explored up that way once and the water was very warm and the only fish i found were chubs and several carp in one deep hole. There must be some big springs below that, just above the park, that are essentially the start of Valley's trout water.

 

[outsider]

Unfortunately what we see when there is a fish kill is what is visible: dead trout. What about the biota in that area? Aquatic insects? Small forage fish and crustaceans?

 

[lestrout]

I'm hoping the redds survive the spill.

 

[krayfish2]

Good point outsider. This is a shame but streams near roads, railroad tracks or urban areas will have these things happen from time to time. Fortunately, the population is pretty heavy so it shouldn't have completely devastated the stream. Also, the creeks still have good flows. If they were really low, it could have been worse.