What killed the fish? Hundreds of fish dead in Tecumseh Park pond

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - A scary sight for some, a curious one for others, but one thing is for certain, the smell is awful.

Hundreds of fish belly up in a pond in Lansing's Tecumseh Park. City officials are in the process of investigating the pollution of the pond. With people living nearby wanting to know what killed the fish.

The smell of nature is customary in any park. However, over the last few days, the smell of dead fish has washed up on the shores of a pond here at Tecumseh Park. Leaving residents in the area wanting to know why.

"We've really never had a fish kill in 50 years that I know of," said Cheryl Lutz who has lived in the neighborhood near Tecumseh Park for 50 years.

After seeing posts on social media about the dead fish in the park pond, she decided to get a look for herself.

"We drive by the pond more than anything and often we will see kind of a reflective scum on top of it. Very curious because it certainly shouldn't be there. It's a pond and it's not like there's industry or anything in the area," said Lutz.

Hundreds of fish ranging in size are found near two edges of the pond. Andy Kilpatrick Lansing's Public Service director says the city was notified Friday and they're working with the state to find the cause.

"At this point in time, it's too early to speculate of exactly what happened and why. We've had multiple people out there and a lot of our staff trying to figure out the source of this both technician and sewer folks," said Kilpatrick.

He says the issue could be a lack of oxygen in the water or pollution but it's still being determined.

"We have multiple storm sewers that come into this pond and so we're chasing them upstream to see if we can find the source," said Kilpatrick.

Once the cause is determined Kilpatrick says the city will look to prevent the issue from happening again.

"We want to know, why did the fish die?" said Lutz.

The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) says the fish kill may have started Wednesday and flowed south to Tecumseh Pond. The city and state Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy took samples. It will report its findings to determine the next steps.