School workers blamed for fish kill in Cedar Rapids

Investigators with the Department of Natural Resources say workers with the Cedar Rapids School District are to blame for a small fish kill Saturday. DNR spokesperson Kevin Baskins says a citizen reported seeing dead fish and a yellowish color in a creek located at Noelridge Park in Cedar Rapids. It was determined that the yellow substance was coming from a storm sewer located at Harding Middle School in Cedar Rapids. Workers at the school were cleaning up linoleum floors and had been dumping the contents of wet vacs into the storm sewer. Baskins says the stripper/wax solution emptied into the creek killing an undetermined amount of small fish. Workers from the school and the city of Cedar Rapids pumped the material from the stream on Sunday. The DNR has told school officials to purchase separate containers to empty material from the wet vacs. "We’ve advised them to put drums there, pour the material into that and then it can be properly disposed of from there," Baskins said. The school district or the workers could face fines. "At this point, we’re looking at what would be the appropriate enforcement action," Baskins said.