Arizona officials have indefinitely closed a popular lake to visitors after its entire population of fish died recently.
The recreation and wildlife department that maintains San Carlos Lake said in a Facebook statement on Friday that drought conditions as well as water released from a dam there “resulted in a major fish kill affecting approximately 100% of the fish population”.
According to the statement, decomposing fish pose health hazards to people who try to fish or swim in the human-made reservoir. Officials therefore said they would not allow fishing, harvesting or possessing fish, or any associated activities at San Carlos Lake, “until further notice”.
The San Carlos recreation and wildlife department added that it would “continue to monitor conditions and provide updates as they become available.
I guess they are planning on future fish kills? The closure is “indefinite”? What caused the kill? Water doesn’t typically kill fish, does it? This article says “water released from a dam” is what killed the fish.
They lowered the water level too low for the fish to survive (I assume because they were trying to maintain their obligations to downstream water users). I’m pretty sure it’s “indefinite” because they don’t know when (or if) there will be enough water to fill the lake back up again.
I’m not sure if it’s generally understood by people outside the southwest and/or non-engineers, but not only is most of the country in a significant drought, the water situation in the southwest was dire even before that. The design of the whole system, dating back from the early 1900s, was predicated on flows measured in an unusually wet period that were assumed to be normal. It cannot actually support the level of use the law requires it to, even without considering the effects of things like climate change or population growth.
I think it’s worded weird. I think they let out too much water from the lake, not into the lake. Just a guess though. It might be chemical runoff water from the dam too.