Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1962-12-02
Pesticides Called Peril to Fishing

curing abundantly in Wheeler
Reservoir, into which the creek
flows. All the rough-fish popu-
lation of these waters was de-
stroyed also the carp, buffalo,
drum, gizzard shad and catfish.
None showed signs of disease =
only the erratic movements Of
the dying and a strange deep
wine color of the gills.
In the warm Enclosed waters
of farm ponds, conditions are
very likely to be lethal for fish
when insecticides are applied in
the vicinity. AS many examples
show, the poison is carried in
by rains and runoff from sur
rounding lands. Sometimes the
ponds receive not only con-
taminated runoff but also a
direct dose as crop-dusting pi-
lots neglect to shut off the
buster In passing over a pond
Even without such compli-
cations, normal agricultural
use subjects fish to far heavier
concentrations Of chemicals
than would be required to
kill them. In other words, a
marked reduction in the pound
ages used would hardly alter
the lethal situation, for appli-
cations of over OIL pound per
acre to the pond itself are gen.
orally considered hazardous.
And the poison, once intro
duced. is hard to get rid of.
One pond that had been
treated with DOT to remove
unwanted sinners remained so
poisonous through repeated
DRAWINGS and flushings that it
killed "a per cent of the sun
fish with which it was later
stocked. Apparently the chem
zeal remained in the mud of
the pond bottom.
Poisoning Spreads
Conditions are evidently no
better now than when the
modern insecticides first came
into use. The Oklahoma Wild
life Conservation Department
stated in 1861 that reports of
fish losses in farm ponds and
small lakes had been coming
in at the rate of at least one
a week, and that such reports
were increasing.
The conditions usually re-
sponsible for these losses in
Oklahoma were those made ia
miliar by repetition over the
years: the application Of in
secticides to crops, a heavy
rain, and poison washed into
the ponds.
One of the most spectacular
fish kills of recent years &C.
Cured in the Colorado River
below Austin, Tex, in 1861.
Shortly after daylight on Sum-
day morning, January Is, dead
fish appeared in the new Town
Lake in Austin and in the river
for a distance Of about 5 miles
below the lake. None had been
seen the day before.
On Monday there were re-
ports of dead fish SO miles
downstream. BY this time 1t
was clear that a wave of some
poisonous substance was NOV
ing down in the river water
BY January 81, fish were be-
ing killed 100 miles down.
stream near La Grange, and a
week later the chemicals were
doing their lethal work 200
miles below Austin. During the
last week of January the locks
on the Intracoastal Waterway
were closed to exclude the toxic
waters from Matagorda Bay
and divert them into the Gulf
of Mexico.
Meanwhile, investigators in
Austin noticed an odor asso-
ciated with the insecticides
chlordane and toxaphene. 1t
was especially strong in the
discharge from one Of the
storm sewers. This sewer had
in the past been associated
with trouble from industrial
wastes, and when officers of
the Texas Game and Fish
Commission followed it back
from the lake, they noticed an
odor like that of benzene hexa-
chloride at all openings as fer
back as a feeder line from a
-