DINWIDDIE COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) – The troubles for Stony Creek in Dinwiddie County continue as residents are still fighting to recover from the creek being contaminated with what is being called a very diluted corn syrup. This was noticed in July when a farmer was using the product to feed his hogs when the substance overflowed into the creek. On Tuesday night, environmental officials updated residents with where restoration efforts stand.
“Absolutely should have never gotten this bad,” said Billy Bain who farms along Stony Creek.
That message was one echoed by many here at this month’s work session for the Dinwiddie County Board of Supervisors.
“It’s a bad eye sore for Dinwiddie and I hope we are going to get out of this very quickly,” said Bain.
How quickly the water in Stony Creek will return to normal levels is still at this point unknown. But, over the past few weeks there have been signs of improvements.
“We’re starting to see some recovery with the dissolved oxygen and the PH in the water column right now,” said Kyle Winter with the Department of Environmental Quality.
Environmental experts at the meeting revealed that several species of fish inhabiting the area have been killed off completely in the effected water.
“We’re hoping they will recover once the stream recovers, once the water is able to support fish it’s just a matter of when they start swimming back into that area,” said Winter.
Officials say they are still investigating how long the substance had been flowing into the water and county officials say they pledge to continue to update citizens with the latest information.
“We are seeing some recovery but we still have several months of review on this subject,” said Kevin Massengill, the Dinwiddie County Administrator.
Experts tonight are warning that if you ever see anything suspicious or something that could contaminate the waterway like the situation we have here they are urging you to alert your local officials. They say this situation could have been prevented.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
