New Warnings About Wissahickon Creek

Upper Gwynedd, Pa. - June 21, 2006 (WPVI) -- Cyanide may have been the killer of about one-thousand fish along the Wissahickon Creek last week.

State environmental experts found cyanide in the sewers feeding the Upper Gwynedd waste water treatment plant as well in the creek downstream.

Dennis Harvey of the DEP says, "Cynanide came into the plant, and a form of cyanide left the plant."

The DEP found 100 parts per billion of cyanide in the water. That's too little to hurt humans, but five times the levels needed to kill fish. What's not clear is where the cyanide came from.

"We don't know one particular source that it came from. What we do know: there are industrial uses for cyanide and there are discharges for this sewer service area," says Harvey. The next step is to see if there are traces of the poison uphill from the sewage system.

The Wissahickon feeds the larger Schuylkill. Last week's incident prompted an unprecedented ban on river sports. The ban was quickly lifted.

On Wednesday, to demonstrate that all is well and that no cynanide was ever detected in the river, organizers of the Philadelphia triathlon wanted to make a point. The idea, says Lars Beck of the Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon, was to "Jump in the river and go for a swim and show that it is, in fact, clean."

Three-thousand athletes are coming to swim in the river this weekend.

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