GREENWOOD, S.C. — Answers on what killed thousands of fish and other aquatic life in Lake Greenwood this spring could arrive later this month, with state regulators now saying their final report should be public in roughly two weeks.
On Tuesday, the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services said it and the other state agencies on the case have wrapped up their final reviews. Staff are now working in edits suggested by outside academic experts.
The document will be long. The latest draft runs past 400 pages, much of it raw data, so the department is also writing a two-page summary of the key findings. Both are expected to come out together, and the agency has said the finished report will be posted on its fish kill webpage.
Residents first noticed dead fish on April 13 around Morse Landing and along South Lake Forest Drive, and the agency kept getting calls about the Cross Hill area of the lake through April 20. Early counts put the toll near 3,000 fish. Later estimates grew to somewhere between 15,000 and 25,000 animals, a total that also counted snails and turtles.
No single cause has been pinned down. Water profiles taken April 17 at nine spots across the lake showed normal oxygen levels and temperatures for the season. Testing in May found nothing tying the deaths to nearby industry. Fish tissue results in June turned up three old pesticides, all banned since the 1970s or 1980s, which regulators called an unlikely factor.
State officials have said routine monitoring gives no reason to avoid eating fish from the lake or swimming and boating on it. Environmental and natural resources staff also plan an after-action review with university experts to look for a probable cause.
Lake Greenwood is an 11,400-acre reservoir on the Saluda River with 212 miles of shoreline touching Greenwood, Laurens and Newberry counties.
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