Company to pay $7,600 for Cedar Rapids trout kill

McLoud Run in Cedar Rapids is partly bounded by a railway and a recreational trail. (Submitted photo)

The owner of a vacant commercial building that leaked about 450,000 gallons of water into the state’s only urban trout stream in January — and killed hundreds of fish — will pay a fine and restitution that total about $7,600, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

The source of the leak was a broken water pipe in a building north of downtown Cedar Rapids owned by NS Retail Holdings, of Texas. The building is about 250 feet from McLoud Run, a trout stream in the middle of the city that is susceptible to various contaminants , including treated drinking water.

Chlorine in that water makes it safe for people to drink but potentially deadly for fish. Trout are especially sensitive to it.

The DNR has said water in a fire suppression line in the building likely froze and then leaked when it thawed. The city noted a water flow increase from one of its storage towers about 3:30 a.m. on Jan. 23, according to a recent DNR order.

City workers later discovered the leak at 4425 Center Point Road NE and shut off water to the site about 9 a.m. They also put dechlorination tablets into the stream to help mitigate the impact of the influx of water.

But the damage had been done: A fish kill investigation found about 340 dead rainbow and brown trout and none alive in the affected segment of the stream. There were also dozens of dead smaller fish.

Boyd Group, an Illinois company that is affiliated with NS Retail Holdings, paid about $5,800 in fish kill restitution to the DNR in March. In a recent department order, NS Retail Holdings agreed to pay a further $280 for investigative costs and a fine of $1,500.

The DNR can impose fines of up to $10,000 administratively.

It was the second fish kill caused by drinking water at the stream in less than a year. Cedar Rapids agreed to pay about $24,000 in fines and restitution for a March 2023 incident, in which a water main break killed about 1,400 trout.

The DNR regularly stocks the stream with trout to expand fishing opportunities for residents of the state’s second-largest city.

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