Hundreds of fish killed in Lincoln lake; neighbors call for action

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – A Lincoln lake full of dead fish is causing a stir in the community.

Hundreds of fish died at Spring Lake near South Coddington Avenue and West A Street.

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission said someone who lives at the lake reported that the fish were gasping for air a few nights ago. By the next morning, they were dead.

Neighbors are calling for action after waking up to strong, fishy fumes this weekend.

“Oh yeah, it’s bad,” said Sharon Wacker, who lives by the lake. “And the hotter it gets, the worse the smell is going to be.”

But Jan Carney, president of the Coddington Mill Homeowners Association, said there’s not much that can be done.

“I don’t like to see it any more than anybody else does,” she said. “I love living on this little lake, and it breaks my heart to see stuff like this happen. But I know that it’s just part of nature, and it happens.”

The perfect storm of lawn fertilizer, rain and a lack of wind caused the lake’s oxygen levels to drop to a deadly level for some of the fish.

“Fish kills are regular in Nebraska,” Carney said. “Any of the area lakes just have an algal bloom that they can’t do anything about, and it’s a regular turnover of the lake.”

Carney has lived on Spring Lake for more than 30 years.

She said the homeowners association does its best to prevent these things by installing aerators and doing regular cleaning treatments.

Carney can remember a fish kill even worse than this one.

“We had a major fish kill probably 20 years ago,” she said. “I mean bad, bad. And in that case, we had to get construction dumpsters and big trucks to haul them out.”

Carney said the homeowners association discussed removing the fish this time, but it would have cost around $10,000.

So she did some research and decided to just let nature do its job.

“Of course, when anything decomposes, you get the gasses and the swelling,” Carney said.

She said if too many fish are damaged in the removal process, the bacteria in them will go into the lake and cause a bigger problem.

But Wacker also remembers the last fish kill.

And she thinks dumpsters need to be brought in again, even if it’s costly.

“We have raccoons and possums, but they’re not going to go out in the middle of the lake, and I’m not sure they’re going to eat dead stuff,” Wacker said. “The association is supposed to take care of common areas and the lake. That’s what we pay our dues for.”

Carney said the HOA is looking into ways to prevent this from happening again.