40K fish dead on Crane Creek, Iowa DNR seeking answers

An estimated 40,000 fish are dead on a 20-mile stretch of Crane Creek in Northeast Iowa, and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources is trying to figure out what killed them.

“It’s a complex area in terms of what drains into that watershed,” said Brett Meyer, an environmental specialist with the Iowa DNR’s Manchester field office. “We’re trying to go through the process of elimination.”

The department was notified Friday about dead fish in the creek about 2 miles southwest of Readlyn, according to a news release Monday. Officials think the kill originated around 250th Street and Piedmont Avenue in Bremer County, but the damage can be seen as far south as Dunkerton.

A preliminary estimate showed 40,000 fish, including blue gill, crappie, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass and northern pike, are dead, as well as snails and crawfish, Meyer said Tuesday. Private ponds connected to the creek also have dead fish, he said.

“It’s a pretty extensive area and that’s a lot of fish,” he said.

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Although the area has a lot of animal feeding operations, Meyer said, early water tests do not point to manure runoff. Iowa DNR officials are looking at multiple drainage tile lines from farms and Readlyn and talking with landowners along the creek.

This stretch of Crane Creek, a tributary of the Wapsipinicon River, had another fish kill June 7, 2023. In that case between 1,000 and 5,000 fish were estimated to have been killed by an unknown cause, according to the Iowa DNR’s fish kill database.

“I don’t think we determined a cause in that one,” Meyer said. “That’s one of the reasons were trying to get some more information (about the recent fish kill).”

The state has investigated more than 80 fish kills since the start of 2019. Of those, nine have estimated losses of 25,000 or more fish. The largest was the March 11 spill of 265,000 gallons of ammonia fertilizer that killed an estimated 750,000 fish on the East Nishnabotna River in Southwest Iowa.

Meyer is asking anyone with information about what might have caused the Crane Creek fish kill to contact him at Brett.Meyers@dnr.iowa.gov or call the Iowa DNR’s 24-hour spill line at 515-725-8694.

Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com

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