Last week about 45,000 barrels of bourbon were consumed in a massive Kentucky warehouse fire, now fish in the surrounding area are feeling the repercussions.
While firefighters battled the blaze for hours, gallons of whiskey ran out of the burning Jim Beam facility into nearby waterways, resulting in the deaths of thousands of fish. The runoff has created a 24-mile-long alcohol plume in the Kentucky River, depriving the fish of oxygen.
Aerial footage of dead fish floating on the Kentucky River following bourbon runoff from the Jim Beam warehouse fire that started on Tuesday night. @heraldleader @pbaniak @caitlyn_stroh pic.twitter.com/tKB5Gt74lm
— Alex Slitz (@AlexSlitzPhoto) July 5, 2019
“The bacteria in the water is going after the food source, which is the sugar in the alcohol and so they deplete the oxygen,” Robert Francis, who is managing the state’s emergency response team, told BBC. “The fish start to become distressed, and they eventually die.”
Crews are working to infuse the polluted water with oxygen using barges to aerate the water, although the plume, which is moving at about 0.6 mph, is expected to become diluted to safe levels by the time it reaches the Ohio River around Monday.
Francis explained that this is not the first time Kentucky, known for its bourbon, has had to deal with whiskey spills.
“We’ve had several occur in this state, so when this one occurred, we were just ready for it and knew what the actions were to take,” he said.
The dead fish are going to be allowed to decompose naturally. Officials say the water doesn’t pose a danger to humans.
UPDATE ON KENTUCKY RIVER in Central KY…
Yesterday (July 8) our Fisheries crews finished collecting data to calculate estimated losses of fish and other aquatic life following last week’s bourbon warehouse fire and associated runoff into the river. Results will be forthcoming. pic.twitter.com/A5hb9jXK9s— KY Fish & Wildlife (@kyfishwildlife) July 9, 2019
