Water released at Grand Lake to prevent fish kill - KOAM TV 7

Water released at Grand Lake to prevent fish kill

The Grand River Dam Authority has begun releasing water to prevent a large scale fish kill.

High levels of oxygen can kill fish.  Officials check oxygen year round, but according to GRDA, summer is when it is most likely to be abnormal.

"It's just a naturally occurring thing - in the hot weather like this the water evaporates, the wind blows, the dissolved oxygen levels tend to go down, the water heats up, so we need to inject where we can to kind of give a little boost to the fish habitat," says Justin Alberty of GRDA.

So the agency releases just over 1/3 of an inch of water.

"We need to run a little bit of water, inject it with a little bit of air, so just some bubbles come out in the tail rates below the dam, and that's good for the fish," says Alberty.

GRDA is also filing a request this week to stop an annual three foot draw down in August to conserve water.  That allows lake officials to seed areas to give food and shade to local wildlife.