Susan Benson, who owns a building near the intersection of Main and Flint Sts. downtown near the outfall of where Leatherwood Creek emerges from an underground tunnel, is seeking answers to an incident on April 23. Benson said she observed pollution coming down the stream that she believes is responsible for killing the fish in the portion of the creek that runs in her backyard.
Benson said on April 23 a representative of CellFill, LLC, a contractor based in Grove, Okla., came to her property and wanted permission to come back and forth to monitor the creek.
“I thought that was pretty weird,” Benson said. “I knew that this company was working on a huge sinkhole in the parking lot of Eureka Live, which is about a block north of me. The man from CellFill said he wanted to watch to make sure something never came out of the creek. I thought it might be boulders or something.
“Within thirty minutes of them starting to work, I was in the backyard near the creek when I saw foam coming out of the creek. It was like bubbles in a bath. The fish were acting odd and attempting to jump out of the creek. The fish were being denied oxygen. Usually when you walk up to the creek, as soon as fish see something they swim away and hide. That day they were out in the open and struggling. It was the most pitiful thing you have ever seen.
“And then they died. I think the largest one was maybe four inches. I told the worker that I didn’t know what they were putting in the creek but said it was killing the fish. He turned around and went right back up to where they were doing the construction.”
Benson said she was concerned not only for the fish but the entire ecosystem of the creek both at the site of her building and further downstream. She contacted city hall and got a return call from City Building Inspector Jacob Coburn, who said he would look into the situation. Meanwhile she called the Environmental Protection Agency, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ), the Arkansas Fish & Game Commission and government authorities. The Eureka Springs Fire Department came and took water samples, as did Benson.
“I noticed at the end of afternoon water pouring down the road from the area where they were working even though I thought they were gone,” Benson said. “I went up there and there was liquid leaking from a dumpster with gray material in it. The liquid was draining into a manhole in the street that runs right into our creek. Whatever was running out of the dumpster was putting an oily sheen on the water. Later that afternoon a supervisor of CellFill came here and said to me that they didn’t put anything in there that would kill the fish. I told him he killed my fish. You disturbed a happy, healthy ecosystem that is no longer there.”
Benson said when she was collecting water from the creek for samples, everywhere water splashed her legs burned and developed red spots.
“I reached my hand into the creek, and the rest of the day my hand felt like it had been burned in hot grease,” Benson said. “Whatever was in that dumpster was also in that creek from that company. A city worker came a couple times and said don’t worry about it. In a couple days, it will wash down the creek. The problem is this will end up in Table Rock Lake where people swim. I felt like I was defeated before I ever came up with an answer to what they were putting in the water that killed my fish.”
Benson said she was also concerned she had just invested $200 in garden supplies, and fears that whatever killed the fish might have contaminated her soil next to the creek. She doesn’t feel comfortable with the idea of eating those vegetables when it is time.
She is still waiting on answers from regulatory authorities but said the company’s website said it uses hydrated lime, which she said can deprive fish of oxygen.
“The creek was crystal clear before they started,” Benson said. “When they were finished after the second day, everything green in the creek had turned brown. It was like sludge in the creek. Now all the sludge is gone and I can’t see any signs of fish at all when I normally could. To be honest, I love the environment more than people. I’m all about saving the planet. I know they are fish, but they are still a part of this ecosystem. There are also crawfish in that creek.”
Coburn said that the contractor and the repair method was approved by his department. The material that was used is not a hazardous material; it is considered a green material which has a low carbon footprint.
“After hearing Susan’s claim, I submerged my hand into the product and it had no effect whatsoever,” Coburn wrote in an email. “The material was recommended by McClelland Consulting Engineers and developed by a civil engineer. I cannot comment on what caused her hand to burn or her dead fish because it would only be speculation of what caused it.”
James Diver, owner of CellFill, denied that the work they did was responsible for the fish kill.
“They shut that parking lot down because there were large voids from washouts over the years that opened up some cavities,” Diver said. “We were there actually fixing an unsafe problem with those voids near the creek underneath the parking lot so the two businesses there can open back up.
“It is unfortunate what happened to the fish, but it wasn’t because of the work we did. We did not have concrete coming out of those voids and going into the water. We climbed 225 feet up into that intake structure. There was no concrete leaking and no concrete in that water. Also, the reality is that concrete is not going to cause the low dissolved oxygen in the water which would cause fish to die.”
Diver said his company has extensive experience working around bodies of water and wetlands including doing huge projects for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the Mississippi River where they have pumped concrete into voids behind the levee system. He said the COE is very strict regarding environmental regulations.
“I understand we happened to be out there that day, but I told ADEQ it needs to sample water from point sources that are going into that water,” Diver said. “There are a lot of pipes underground running into Leatherwood Creek. It is an obvious issue, but our concrete did not get into the water and kill the fish.”
Regarding concrete in the dumpster, Diver said they had filter bags to contain the waste from leaking out. He said they had two filters and while no dumpster is perfect as far as leaking, what was coming out was water—not concrete.