What killed thousands of fish in Hixson?

CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – What caused the death of thousands of small fish in a Hixson creek?

That’s what neighbors and several investigative agencies would like to know.

The water level in a small creek off Dupont parkway near Memphis Drive has been higher this week because of recent heavy rains.

City officials blame the hot weather and say it’s happening all over the area.

But there’s speculation that thousands of these fish may have died of a sewage overflow ..or chemicals sprayed by the city during that time.

Local residents could not believe their eyes when the saw how many there were.

Drake Boscaino who lives on Memphis Drive says “We had a sewer overflow a few weeks ago..10 days age or something I like that..and we started walking around and seeing all the sewage everywhere and a few days after that the city came out with two big pump trucks that had some kind of chemical in it that was supposed to kill all the bacteria. Stuff that was all over the ground cause it poured all over my yard.”

Residents have complained for some time about how the creek jumps the banks and floods part of the area every time there’s a big rain.
But efforts by the city of Chattanooga and TDOT, which controls the area near Access Road, to have only been moderately successful in controlling that.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources had agents on hand today to determine what kind of fish they were…most were shad.
But, whatever the cause, residents are angry.

“You wouldn’t want to walk in your yard if you had sewage in there..and you wouldn’t want to walk on the chemicals that they sprayed all over the yard, that potentially killed a whole bunch of fish.

Again, no cause for the fishkill has been determined.

“I don’t know what did it. I just ..got a call that there was a lot of fish dead in the creek and so I went and checked it out. ”

This afternoon, Justin Holland, Public Works Administrator for the City of Chattanooga issued this statement on the fish kill.

“The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) is presently investigating the cause of the large numbers of dead fish seen in a wet weather conveyance that runs into the Tennessee River. At this point, officials believe that the cause is related to weather occurrences earlier this week, including recent increases in the water temperature and rainfall levels that are higher than normal.

The City of Chattanooga will continue to remain in touch with our partners at TWRA and the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation (TDEC) about this occurrence. We will provide additional information about what happened if it becomes available.”