Heavy Rain, Clean-Up Efforts Clear Mill Creek Stream Of Concrete Spill
Aug 2, 2021, 8:49 PM | Updated: Aug 3, 2021, 4:28 pm
Dead fish float in Mill Creek Stream after construction crews spilled concrete in the waterway. (Patrick Fink)
(Patrick Fink)
MILLCREEK, Utah – Heavy weekend rains and extensive clean-up efforts have cleared a concrete spill in Mill Creek stream, according to the Utah Department of Environmental Quality.
The DEQ wrote in a Facebook post Monday afternoon that the water quality issues caused by the concrete have now been “resolved.”
Officials said the public is welcome to use the stream again for irrigation and recreation.
A few days before, officials had advised Utahns and their pets to avoid the stream, adding that the spill had increased the stream’s PH levels, which can cause skin irritations.
The spill happened west of an Interstate 215 construction project near 3500 South on Thursday.
Officials with the Utah Department of Transportation said clean-up crews removed sixty 50-gallon bags of potentially contaminated material from the stream.
Cleanup crews have removed sixty 50-gallon bags of potentially contaminated material in Mill Creek Stream. According to @UtahDEQ and @SaltLakeHealth, the public is now welcome to use the stream again for irrigation and recreation. https://t.co/ZDMRUefmZt
— Utah DOT (@UtahDOT) August 2, 2021
As of Monday, officials with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources said they had collected roughly 300 fish, primarily from about 2300 East to 3600 East.
“We are still trying to determine the full extent of the fish impacts from this incident and will be doing follow-up surveys,” they wrote in a tweet Tuesday.
Faith Heaton Jolley, public information officer for DWR, said the majority killed in the concrete spill were native Bonneville cutthroat trout, with some tiger trout and some brown trout.
“We will do some assessments to see if conditions are favorable for restocking fish in that area this fall or if we will wait to restock until next year. We are planning to restock with 2-inch Bonneville cutthroat trout,” she wrote in a comment on the post.
