FREDERICKTOWN, Mo. — "Holy cow...that's a lot of dead fish."
That's the one thought Dave Knuth, a fisheries biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation, said he had when approaching the site of a 2 1/2-mile-long fish kill Friday near Fredericktown.
A massive effort was launched on Oct. 30 to extinguish a fire at a local lithium battery plant. Two days later, locals reported thousands of dead fish washing up on the shorelines of the nearby Village Creek and St. Francis River.
MDC officials are performing necropsies on the dead fish and Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MoDNR) officials are testing water samples from the area. Officials aren't sure what the cause of the fish kill was, but they hypothesized firefighting foam used to extinguish the industrial fire was the main cause. 5 On Your Side crews at the scene observed white foam-like substances on the creek's surface on Friday.
Certain firefighting foams and retardants have previously been found to contain "forever chemicals," or PFAS, which are linked to harmful effects on humans and animals, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. Potential impacts include groundwater, surface water, and potential drinking water contamination.
However, drinking water is not expected to be impacted, since virtually all of the community's water comes from City Lake, which is north of where the fish kill happened. Officials urged no one to use the water from Village Creek as investigations continue.
The boundary of the fish kill starts near the confluence of Village Creek and a wet-weather creek that runs alongside Highway OO and ends near the confluence of Village Creek and the St. Francis River, according to Knuth.
MDC expected to have testing results from the fish by Friday. MoDNR expects to have water testing results by next week.
CMR, the owner of the battery plant, released the following statement:
CMR learned of a fish kill on Village Creek Friday and has engaged the service of a local contractor to provide independent water for livestock located in the vicinity of the affected creek. State and federal agencies are still working to determine the cause and extent of the fish kill. Surface and groundwater monitoring continues. There remains no indication that the city or county drinking water has been impacted. Testing of the water is ongoing as well.
Yesterday afternoon, CMR expedited the delivery by CMR’s CEO of emergency cash funds for immediate distribution to displaced families. The funds were distributed by Sheriff McCutcheon without condition and without release requirements and without expectation of repayment.
Local law enforcement has been requested to continue to provide secondary services to secure the CMR site, an undertaking for which local law enforcement was contracted by CMR prior to the fire.
Evaluation of and investigation into the cause of the fire continues.
Collaborative undertakings by CMR with federal and state regulators, city first responders and law enforcement, environmental experts and contractors continue.
Air monitoring continues at the site, site perimeters, neighboring community and throughout Fredericktown. Air quality remains good.
The remaining fire embers continue to be monitored and addressed by expert firefighters.
EPA continues to perform air monitoring around the site and in the community. EPA has established a website relating to their involvement in this response with a map of air monitoring locations. EPA’s response page is available at https://response.epa.gov/cmrfire.
Hotline calls are being received and responses are being given to community questions.
As a clarification of yesterday’s release, out of the abundance of caution we recommend that water not be utilized from Village Creek from the Route OO bridge north of the CMR facility to the intersection of Village Creek and the Little St. Francis River until further notice.
