Sewer line break leads to East Hickman fish kill

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – A sewer line break Monday has led to a fish kill in a Lexington creek, according to the city.

A city contractor working on the East Hickman Pump Station replacement struck a sewer force main Monday morning, causing more than 770,000 gallons of untreated sewage to dump into East Hickman Creek killing about 50 fish.

The force main was repaired Monday and water quality monitoring showed normal levels of oxygen in the water until Tuesday afternoon, when a low level of oxygen was detected in part of the creek, the city said in a release.

“With the dry weather we’ve had recently, the discharge of sewage can cause the oxygen in the creek to drop,” said Charles Martin, director of the Division of Water Quality. “We have been monitoring the situation through water quality testing and have unfortunately discovered low oxygen levels that caused a fish kill.”

The city is working with Kentucky’s Division of Water to come up with solutions to mitigate the problem and increase oxygen levels in the stream.