SPRINGDALE -- Thousands of dead fish lay in Spring Creek on Thursday, and no one seems to know who's going to clean up the mess.
Walkers on the Razorback Greenway found the fish Wednesday morning and alerted a member of the city's Parks Department staff working along the creek. Michael Kolke, a trails superintendent, said he also smelled ammonia at the scene and reported the situation to the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment's Division of Environmental Quality.
The site runs about 500 yards along the creek, just north of downtown Springdale.
State investigators are working to find the source of any release of chemicals into the creek that could have caused the fish kill, said an email from Morgan Acuff, a spokesman for the Energy Department.
The investigator said the event appeared to be localized, Acuff reported.
The department did not respond Thursday to questions about who is responsible for cleanup.
Chad Wolf, director of the city's Parks and Recreation Department, said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has jurisdiction over the "waters of the United States," not the city.
David Rupe, a ranger with the U.S. Corps of Engineers, said the Environmental Quality office would determine who completes the cleanup. The Corps' oversight includes only permit issue for dredging, adding fill or similar actions with a creek, he said.
Leif Kindberg, the executive director of the Illinois River Watershed Partnership, said the state must first determine if the kill was caused by an industrial or commercial spill into the creek or an algae bloom. He explained the partnership carries the mantle of education and outreach, as well as helping protect and restore areas that ultimately drain into the river.
Spring Creek drains into Osage Creek where it meets the Illinois River just east of Siloam Springs.
Northwest Arkansas and industry leaders worked in the past decades to greatly reduce the amount of phosphorus entering the watershed after Oklahoma groups filed several lawsuits over the water quality in the Illinois River.
"This is why we must monitor the water quality," Kinberg said. "It's really critical to prevent these kinds of things to protect its quality."
Jennifer Enos, the director of the Springdale Waste Water Treatment Plant, downstream from the spill, said ammonia can dissipate fairly rapidly, depending on conditions. She said plants would consume the ammonia for its nitrogen or the ammonia would evaporate as a gas in the atmosphere.
Too much nitrogen can prompt algae to grow faster than river ecosystems can handle, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website.
Enos noted fisherman downstream of the plant were catching live fish Wednesday morning.