The Chattahoochee Riverkeeper says polluted runoff water from a massive junkyard fire has caused one of the largest fish die-offs in years at two northwest Atlanta creeks.
The Department of Natural Resources hasn’t finished counting how many fish were killed, but the number could be well into the hundreds, Channel 2 Action News reported.
The fire broke out about 9:30 a.m. Monday at a salvage and metal recycling facility in the 800 block of Regina Drive near Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway, AJC.com previously reported.
RELATED: Massive fire breaks out at northwest Atlanta junkyard
Plumes of smoke hovered over metro Atlanta for hours as multiple units worked to extinguish the blaze. The fire department called ladder trucks and a foam unit to fight the flames, officials said.
Riverkeeper Jason Ulseth said that’s part of the reason so many fish died in the creeks overnight, Channel 2 reported.
“There were a lot of firefighting efforts putting water and foam to put out that fire, and as a result a lot of that water and chemicals and a lot of that stuff that was just burning on the junkyard got washed into this local stream here,” Ulseth told the news station.
Ulseth believes a combination of foam and junkyard runoff caused the fish to suffocate to death.
“This is one of the largest we’ve had in recent memory in our waterways here in Atlanta,” he said.
In a statement, an Atlanta Fire Rescue spokesman told Channel 2 the foam used by the department “at the concentration levels used is biodegradable and non-toxic.”
“We do not believe that the foam used to extinguish the fire contributed in any way to fish being killed in the area,” the statement said.
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