Carroll Creek Stinks, Literally
The fam and I took a quick walk at the Creek a couple of weekends ago and we noticed the dead fish like stench. I thought it may have been because it was a hot day, apparently not …
Something’s rotten in the new $10.2 million Carroll Creek Park.It’s not the ornate brick paths, the wooden benches or the bright red suspension bridge.
It’s the creek itself — murky, almost opaque, greenish-brown water, with clumps of algae clinging to its concrete banks and debris slowly wending its way downstream.
The water’s stench has reached the top floor of City Hall.
“It’s a concern, and we’re trying to look at some ways to address that,” Mayor Jeff Holtzinger said. “It’s not good when you spend $10 million and the water is stagnant.”
The main reason for the problems, the mayor said, is that Carroll Creek is being used for two purposes: a flood control project and an ornamental park for economic and tourism development.
As designed, the creek could adequately slow the flow of water during a flood, but under normal conditions, it might be slowing the water too much, Mr. Holtzinger said.
One of the options to speed the creek’s water flow is to raise the slope of part of the creek. But that could be problematic, Mr. Holtzinger said. The city has to avoid raising the slope of the creek to a point where the increased velocity will hinder flood control, he said.
Another possible solution, Mr. Holtzinger said, will be cleaning the main channel into the creek located under the bridge on Carroll Street. It is visibly clogged by silt.
I don’t want to laugh at this because I know any fixes for the problem will probably come out of my pocket, but it’s pretty freakin’ funny!
Oh, I agree! On my walk to the library the other day, I noticed the “stink,” algae, and dead fish, too.
Interesting dilemma.
There’s an interesting letter to the editor in today’s (Thursday, 8/10) News-Post that suggests that the folks over at Lilypons be able to help with this problem. It makes sense that water plants and certain fish would definitely help to clean up the water. I hope the city pursues a more organic approach to this problem rather than just dumping chemicals or something.
totally agree Liz.
My organization was given a tour of the project last weekend, and it was kind of noxious. I can say that similar projects use a low-powered propeller system to gently move the water. It’s a cheap alternative to changing the angle of the whole project.
The slow flow and no shade lead to algae blooms, and lack of oxygen for the remaining fish. When we took the tour, the fish that we saw were huddled under the shade of the bridge, or under the algae blooms.