(Lake Park)– Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources say manure run-off from a cattle feedlot near Lake Park got into the West Fork of the Little Sioux River this week, but so far there’s no evidence of any dead fish.
Bryon Whiting of the DNR’s field office in Spencer says they received a complaint Thursday of manure run-off in northern Dickinson county.
Upon investigating, Whiting says DNR environmental specialists traced the runoff to an open feedlot about two miles northeast of Lake Park.
Whiting says ammonia levels were about 150 parts per million where the concentrated run-off was entering the West Fork of the Little Sioux River. He says levels about a mile and-a-half downstream were much better…at less than one part per million.
Although fish kills usually occur at about eight parts per million of ammonia, Whiting says investigators did not observe any dead fish. But stream levels are high right now, and he says any dead fish may have been washed downstream.
Whiting says the DNR may consider legal action against the owner of the feedlot pending test results from water samples sent to a laboratory.
