On February 3, the Fish and Boat Commission said they took no separate enforcement action in the case of pesticide runoff from the Valley Brook Country Club that killed an estimated 122,586 fish in Chartiers Creek, Washington County. It was decided DEP would take the lead on any penalties assessed.
On January 25, Bob Donnan’s Blog reported the Department of Environmental Protection fined Valley Brook Country Club in Washington County $37,500 for a pesticide runoff discharge that killed
The incident happened on July 14-15, 2021 and involved the fungicide Chlorothalonil that is known to be toxic to fish. The runoff killed fish for 76,616 linear feet of stream-- 14.5 miles downstream of the Country Club.
Click Here for a copy of DEP’s report on the fishkill and sampling results.
This was the first time the cause of the fishkill and the followup enforcement action taken on April 7, 2022 was released publicly by DEP.
In some enforcement cases, the Fish and Boat Commission makes settlement agreements with the companies that cause fish kills, but those settlements are not made public.
A recent example was related to pollution caused by the Pennsylvania General Energy along the Loyalsock Creek in Lycoming County at a natural gas and surface water pipeline construction site. Read more here.
But in the Chartiers Creek case, there was no separate settlement, according to the Commission, because of the DEP lead.
Click Here to read the entire article on Bob Donnan's Blog. It includes copies of inspection reports by the Department of Agriculture.
(Photo: From DEP’s report on fishkill.)
NewsClip:
-- KDKA: Washington County Country Club Fined For Chartiers Creek Fish Kill
Related Article:
[Posted: February 3, 2023] PA Environment Digest
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