Fish-killing chemicals dissipating
By Jane Braxton Little - Bee Correspondent
Published 12:00 am PST Friday, November 16, 2007
PORTOLA – Lake Davis and the surrounding forest area are gradually returning to normal since California officials dumped 16,000 gallons of poison into the reservoir to eradicate non-native northern pike.
All of the chemicals are dissipating, said David Spath, who has regularly tested the reservoir water for the state Department of Health Services since the September treatment.
Rotenone, an organic insecticide used to kill all the fish in the lake, is largely gone, Spath said. The chemicals used to disperse rotenone remain detectable, but all levels were reduced when lasted tested Nov. 5, he said. The U.S. Forest Service has lifted a portion of the public closure imposed before the poisoning.
Lake Davis, its shoreline and all roads leading directly to the reservoir will remain closed to the public until officials determine the area is free of rotenone and its constituent chemicals, said Michele Jimenez-Holtz, a spokeswoman with the Plumas National Forest.
Spath had no estimate of when the chemicals might all be gone.
The California Department of Fish and Game has promised to stock Lake Davis with 117,000 rainbow trout once it is free of chemicals.
Department officials conducted the $16.7 million poisoning project to prevent the invasive pike from migrating downstream into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where they feared they would decimate the state's native and commercial fishery.
