{"id":15604,"date":"2013-08-08T06:30:14","date_gmt":"2013-08-08T11:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=15604"},"modified":"2013-08-08T06:39:11","modified_gmt":"2013-08-08T11:39:11","slug":"months-later-oklahomas-salt-fork-river-fish-kill-is-still-a-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2013\/08\/08\/months-later-oklahomas-salt-fork-river-fish-kill-is-still-a-mystery\/","title":{"rendered":"Months Later, Oklahoma’s Salt Fork River Fish Kill is Still a Mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

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Joe Wertz \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

The mysterious Salt Fork fish kill is worrying residents, river-goers and anglers like Baron Owens, whose dad lives on a stretch of the river near Ponca City.<\/p>\n<\/div>

A summer fish kill in north-central Oklahoma is worrying anglers, river-goers and nearby water users.<\/p>

The Salt Fork River die-off was massive and, still months after it was reported, mysterious. Researchers and state authorities say they still don\u2019t know who or what the killer is.<\/p>


\nhttps:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2013\/08\/STORY-08-08-FishKill.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/p>

<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Bob Sands \/ OETA<\/p>\n

The scene of the Salt Fork fish kill in June 2013.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Two fish kills were reported to the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, records show. The first one on June 3, upstream near Lamont; the second on June 17, near Tonkawa. The two fish kills are likely related, so state authorities are investigating them as one event, officials from the DEQ, state Department of Wildlife Conservation and Corporation Commission tell StateImpact.<\/p>

\u201cIn the areas that overlapped during the kills, there is absolutely zero aquatic life other than turtles,” says Spencer Grace, a state game warden stationed in Kay County.<\/p>

Most of the Salt Fork’s large fish \u2014 including catfish like flatheads and spoonbills \u2014 died in the two fish kills, Grace says. The demise of these hardy fish is worrying and puzzling.<\/p>

Local angler Baron Owens says he watched a parade of 60-pound dead catfish float down the river.<\/p>

\u201cThey were all running up on the bank and dying, but the buzzards wouldn\u2019t even eat them,” he says. “Buzzards will eat anything. I mean, it doesn\u2019t matter. It\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve ever seen something like that. It\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>

DEQ investigators took water samples from the river and sent dead fish specimens to a lab for analysis. The agency’s final report is pending, but preliminary results showed astronomically high levels of salt, says environmental programs manager Jay Wright.<\/p>

“When you compare them to data the Water Resource Board has collected over the last 12-15 years, these were some of the highest readings that had been recorded there,” Wright says.<\/p>\n

Pass the Salt<\/h3>

Fish kills are common in Oklahoma lakes, rivers and streams \u2014 especially in the summer. Most are caused by golden algae, like the June outbreak at Altus-Lugert Lake, which rendered the southwestern Oklahoma reservoir “dead as a fishery<\/a>.”<\/p>

Most Oklahoma fish kills are caused by low levels of dissolved oxygen, but preliminary tests of the Salt Fork water showed plenty of dissolved oxygen.<\/p>

Drought makes fish kills more likely, says Buck Ray, an environmental biologist at the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation who’s helped with the Salt Fork investigation.<\/p>\n

\"Thousands<\/a><\/p>\n

Bob Sands \/ OETA<\/p>\n

Thousands of large fish, including flatheads and spoonbills, died in the June fish kill on the Salt Fork River.<\/p>\n<\/div>

“There’s no rain bringing freshwater in, so what’s in the lake or river just stagnates and concentrates,” Ray says.<\/p>

But Ray says drought alone doesn’t explain the record-high salt content recorded in the Salt Fork River. Strangely, each of the two Salt Fork fish kills followed rainstorms.<\/p>

\u201cWe had fresh water coming in,” says game warden Grace. “Also something else coming with it, either from on the surface or from below.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not Well<\/h3>

So where could the salt come from?<\/p>

One clue might be in the name of the river itself.\u00a0The Salt Fork is fed by the Great Salt Plains Reservoir, which is flanked by a great salt flat filled with salty crystals and deposits. It’s possible that the rainstorms washed a natural salty deposit into the river.<\/p>

Officials at the state agencies investigation the fish kill have no record of this happening in the past, but say it’s conceivable.<\/p>\n

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