State Won’t Punish Richmond for Fish Kill

By REX SPRINGSTON

State environmental officials will not punish the city of Richmond in the deaths of hundreds of fish in Great Shiplock Park.

The fish died when the city drained a canal in the park two weeks ago to maintain a storm-water line upstream.

“There is no indication the city did anything improper, and everyone agrees there currently is no practical way to remove fish from the canal,” state Department of Environmental Quality spokesman Bill Hayden said yesterday.

The draining was allowed under a state permit for the city’s storm-water lines, Hayden said.

In the future, if the city notifies the DEQ before the canal is drained it might be possible to save fish by getting volunteers to scoop them out in buckets, or through some other arrangement, Hayden said.

Great Shiplock Park is along the James River just south of Shockoe Bottom.

The draining of the canal caused numerous fish to be confined to a small, muddy, oxygen-poor pool near a 19th-century ship lock in the park.

The fish that died, most of them small, included shad, carp, bass, catfish and sunfish.

The canal was refilled this past weekend.

Originally published by Times-Dispatch Staff Writer.

(c) 2007 Richmond Times – Dispatch. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.