PARK CITY, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Around a hundred fish turned up dead in a private Park City pond, leaving the homeowners baffled.
The fish kill is in a neighborhood on Hidden Splendor Court in Park City. A major concern for neighbors is that a stream that meanders through their entire community feeds that pond.
"I’m bothered that there could be something going into our water on purpose or not that's killing every living thing," said Loretta Paulus.
She owns the pond where the fish died. The issue started early Wednesday morning, when Paulus heard loud splashing outside.
"It sounded to me like they were fighting and trying to get away from something," she said.
Paulus rushed to the pond to see several of her rainbow trout already dead, and the rest literally trying to jump out of the water.
"We decided to go ahead and put the hose in hoping that we would at least be able to salvage some of them," she said.
But it didn't work. A few hours later, every one of their fish was gone.
Her boyfriend, Shan Ingleby made the discovery.
"The bottom of the pond was completely covered with all of the fish, just dead," he said.
The couple says the fish were like pets. Wednesday, they stood by as firefighters scooped the lifeless trout from the water.
"He said we have never in all the years seen anything like this so many dead fish we've never seen anything like this at all," Ingleby said.
Firefighters fear the contaminated water could hurt the children in the neighborhood. So before they left, they took a sample to see what may have created all this carnage. The results can't get here soon enough for Loretta.
"I hope we can find an answer," she said.
ABC 4 News has been in contact with investigators on this case, and will bring you the very latest.
