I’ve said it before — Stockton’s fall fish kills are depressingly predictable.
To absolutely no one’s surprise, fish are going belly-up in Smith Canal after this week’s rains. Why? The first fall rains wash away an entire summer’s worth of oil and chemicals from our streets and our yards. That runoff goes into Smith Canal and other waterways like the Calaveras River.
Surprise, surprise, the result is toxic for fish.
Bill Maxwell sent this photo today:
Actually, the first report I heard of any fish kill wasn’t in Smith Canal or the Calaveras River or Old Mormon Slough.
It was in Joyce McCallister’s koi pond.
Her pair of 20-year-old koi died Tuesday night or early Wednesday. They’d been fine on Tuesday, before the rains came.
On Facebook, McCallister wrote that the koi lived in the same covered pond for years. Her best guess is that the rain caused runoff that carried some unknown poison — a garden pesticide, perhaps? – into the pond, causing the quick death of the koi.
Here are some tips on preventing stormwater pollution.
