Cedar Rapids must pay $22K for fish kill caused by main break

CEDAR RAPIDS — Another leak of chlorinated water into McLoud Run has killed hundreds of fish, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources announced Thursday — the same day it released an order saying the city of Cedar Rapids will pay $22,000 for a fish kill there last year also caused by chlorinated water.

The city will pay restitution for killing nearly 1,700 fish in McLoud Run last March when a water main broke and sent chlorinated water into the stream. The city also will pay a $500 penalty, and $1,500 of the restitution will go to the Linn County Conservation Board for a supplemental environmental project, according to an enforcement order released Thursday by the Iowa DNR.

In the latest case, the agency said the city reported Tuesday that an estimated 450,000 gallons of chlorinated drinking water from an unoccupied commercial building at 4425 Center Point Road NE was released, and eventually entered McLoud Run. City officials believe the release was caused by pipe that burst during the recent cold snap.

The Iowa DNR said its staff had seen between 200 and 300 dead fish, including trout and white suckers, by Thursday morning. It said the investigation was hampered by murky stream conditions but that it expected to have a fuller count still this week.

In last March’s fish kill, the Iowa DNR got an anonymous call March 30 from an angler about dead fish on McLoud Run near 32nd Street NE, the order states. The same afternoon, Cedar Rapids reported a water main break that caused treated drinking water to flow into a storm sewer that went into the stream.

McLoud Run — Iowa’s only urban trout stream — runs parallel to Interstate 380 before emptying into the Cedar River.

“It's kind of remarkable that clean water can kill fish, but that's what happens here with the chlorine in the water,” Chris Gelner, an Iowa DNR senior environmental specialist, told The Gazette in April. “Fish are very sensitive.”

The discharge killed an estimated 1,359 rainbow and brown trout and 311 white suckers, the enforcement order states. The fish kill extended 1.25 miles to J Avenue NE. Those fish are valued at about $20,000 together. The rest of the restitution is for investigative costs.

At least 10 fish kills previously have been reported in McLoud Run, according to the Iowa DNR’s fish kill database. Five were attributed to chlorinated water spills or discharges.

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