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BUFFALO LAKE, Minn. (AP) -- State pollution officials are
investigating whether runoff from spoiling sugar beet piles played
a role in a fish kill in south-central Minnesota.
The Department of Natural Resources found hundreds of dead fish
in Buffalo Creek east of Brownton late last month.
An official with the Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative
said juice from beets spoiled by mild weather ran off of a piling
site through a field tile and into a ditch, which empties into
Buffalo Creek, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said Friday.
Water samples taken in early April showed very low levels of
oxygen in Buffalo Creek.
Beet juice also may have percolated through the soil at a
piling site near Buffalo Lake and into a ditch southwest of
Stewart. The ditch leads into High Island Creek, the MPCA said.
Low flow in the ditch has prevented large amounts of the substance
from getting into the creek, but DNR and MPCA officials said they
were concerned that substantial rain would wash it downstream. The
beet co-op was expected to pump liquid from the ditch over the
weekend.
The MPCA and co-op officials will meet in the next week to
review the co-op' s beet management at all sites that still have
beets.
The investigation and water sampling will continue. |