Sparks Marina Park Pond Fish Kill-what’s the answer?

With Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) announcing a near total fish kill at Sparks Marina Park Pond this week, questions have arisen as to how the situation occurred, and what’s the future of fishing at this well-known Northern Nevada urban pond.

 

First, there’s the history involved…..

 

The land the Marina currently occupies was once operated as the Nichols Ranch,  1861 up until the1960’s.  The property was sold in 1967 to Helms Construction Company, and from 1967-1992 the land was used as an aggregate pit for the company http://cityofsparks.us/.

 

Known to locals as the “Helm’s Pit”, approximately 9 million cubic yards of material was excavated from the area, creating a near 100 foot deep quarry near the land bordering Interstate 80.  In 1988, contamination was found to be leaking into the quarry from a nearby petroleum storage tank farm, and the area was declared a Toxic Superfund Site.  Lawsuits ensued, and a large-scale environmental clean-up effort of the pit .

 

When groundwater was declared free of chemicals in 1996, the pit was turned over to the City of Sparks.  According to NDOW (http://www.ndow.org/), the City then used millions of dollars of mitigation monies to begin a conversion of the pit into the present day Sparks Marina Park Pond and recreation area.

 

An unanticipated act of nature occurred shortly thereafter.  In 1997, a “hundred year flood” occurred in the Truckee Meadows, spilling a billion gallons of overflow water from the Truckee River into the pit.  Flood waters pre-eminently filled the pit with water in a matter of days, creating the present day Sparks Marina Park Pond.

 

Today, Sparks Marina Park Pond covers 77 acres and is approximately 100 feet deep…

 

A variety of fish species existed in the pond (bass, sunfish, carp), likely due to the type of fish that migrated from the Truckee during the 1997 flood.  Additionally, NDOW has routinely stocked the pond with various fish species (rainbow and brown trout, channel catfish).  Per NDOW’s stocking update, 4259 rainbow trout were stocked in pond as recently as October of 2013~ http://www.ndow.org/Fish/Stocking_Updates/Western_Nevada/.

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The Marina pond’s fish kill became evident this past December, with NDOW and wildlife officials reporting an estimated 3,000 fish killed in what was thought to be a limited area of the pond.  This past Wednesday, Reno Gazette Journal (RGJ) reported that a boat survey conducted Monday by wildlife officials detected extremely low oxygen levels in the pond’s water. The decreased oxygen is theorized to have occurred during the past December’s weather cold snap, creating a turn-over of the pond’s water, with oxygen-poor water rising to the surface of the pond.  An estimated 100,000 fish are reported to have died off due to this event.

 

NDOW officials have indicated that the fishery is now essentially non-existent at the Marina pond, and due to the low oxygen levels, no fish stocking will occur in the near future.

 

Questions have arisen in the community as to the safety and overall water quality at the Marina pond, however this week officials from the City of Sparks and Truckee Meadows Water Authority (TMWA) have indicated the water is safe.

 

The fish die-off has renewed discussion among community anglers regarding fish being caught in a former quarry once deemed a Toxic Superfund Site.  For some anglers who did fish the Sparks Marina Park Pond, “catch and release” was the only way to go.  However others believed that because the pond was essentially declared safe, so they fished accordingly.

 

From an economic perspective, the massive fish die-off does have some potential economic implications. Urban ponds such as the Sparks Marina Park Pond offer different fishing opportunities in proximity to residential neighborhoods.   With more fishing opportunities available to urban communities, there are likely more anglers purchasing rods, gear, and bait from local merchants.

 

From  a recreational perspective, local Nevada anglers (including youth) who took advantage of year-round Nevada fishing on a pond within close proximity to the local Reno/Sparks neighborhood, fishing at Sparks Marina Park Pond is now not an option…..