DECORAH, Iowa – Thousands of fish have died belly-up in a six-mile stretch of Dry Run Creek upstream from Decorah. Game wardens blame a manure release from a feedlot. The spill was discovered Tuesday. The stream turned murky below an unnamed tributary to Dry Run Creek. The creek itself empties into the Upper Iowa River in Decorah, which pretty much follows the Minnesota border to the Mississippi at New Albin. “Don’t drink the water,” the Iowa Natural Resources Department advised. Brett Meyers, a state environmental specialist, said the Decorah Fish Hatchery was working to complete an estimate of dead fish. Meanwhile, work was in progress to stem the release of more ammonia-laden contaminants from the feedlot. Meyers said that snow melt and rain may weakened earth barriers at manure ponds at the feedlot. Fines could be $20,000.
White and bloated. Dead fish along Dry Run Creek. The Upper Iowa is a fishing, tubing and recreational haven in season. Image: Iowa Natural Resources Department