GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A Gwinnett County lake maintenance project took a troubling turn over the weekend when residents discovered hundreds of dead fish floating in Pounds Lake.
Woody Bowen said the smell was so overwhelming that his family couldn’t go outside for most of the weekend.
“Just a horrendous smell hit me in the face, and I walked down to the edge of the property, and I could see just dead fish everywhere,” Bowen said.
The fish kill is the latest problem for neighbors in a county maintenance project at a county-owned lake that began in June at the lake in Lilburn near Lake Lucerne.
The dredging removes built-up sediment from road runoff that accumulates in the lake bottom every few years. The maintenance is necessary to prevent downstream environmental issues, but residents say the execution has been frustrating.
“I hope they figure out how to get this thing done. It needs to be dredged. I just hope they figure out how to actually get it done,” Bowen said.
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Despite the setback, county officials said contractors relocated more than 300 pounds of fish before draining the lake for scheduled maintenance.
“While every effort was made to protect wildlife, it is not possible to remove all fish prior to draining,” Gwinnett County spokesperson Deborah Tuff said. “Unfortunately, low water levels combined with high temperatures over the weekend led to the loss of the remaining fish.”
Tuff said once the county became aware of the fish kill, the Department of Water Resources acted quickly to remove dead fish and address the odor.
Bowen said the county’s assurances about wildlife protection didn’t match what he witnessed.
“We were promised that all the wildlife would be taken care of, and they came in, they took some fish out, but nowhere near all of them,” he said.
The project was originally expected to finish in August, according to neighbors, but appears to have been delayed.
Crews repeatedly drain the lake only to watch it refill when rain arrives, according to Bowen.
“Four days of rain after draining a lake isn’t really unexpected. I mean, I could tell you that with an app on my phone,” he said.
The project is now expected to be completed by the end of September, according to a county spokesperson. The lake will be restocked with fish once maintenance is finished.
Some catfish are still alive and being relocated, according to county officials.
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