Fish Kill May Be The Result of a Common Chemical

"I've never seen anything like this. Thousands of dead fish floating around," said fisher Tim Scranton.

Scranton likes to drop a canoe and a fishing line into a private pond in West Raleigh. But something turned the water toxic over the weekend and killed 600 fish.

"I hope they find out what happened, so we can start cleaning it up. I love to fish it, and until we get it back to its condition, it won't be the same," said Scranton.

County workers found trace amounts of chlorine in the water. They think a careless homeowner may be the culprit.

"Public pools and private pools use a lot of chlorine, and people are getting their pools ready for summer, so it could very well be that," said Kent Penny of Environmental Services.

"It'll kill fish. It'll kill bacteria. It'll kill most living organisms," said Rick Tappan of Home Depot.

Tappan says homeowners should remember that chlorine is highly toxic.

It should never be poured into a drain, because you never know where it might end up or what kind of damage it might do.

"Most of the landfills in the area have hazardous waste day, or pickup days at local schools, and I would bring it there then," said Tappan.

Environmentalists took some of the fish that survived for testing.

It will take a few days to get some more extensive test results back.