City of Duluth Settlement on Fish Kill
Summary
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency reached a settlement with the City of Duluth requiring a $12,000 civil penalty and $190,000 in natural resource damages for a 2024 incident that killed approximately 2,300 fish in Tischer Creek. The incident occurred when city crews released 1.7 million gallons of treated drinking water containing chlorine and ammonia into the creek during reservoir sanitization.
What changed
The MPCA and DNR reached a settlement with the City of Duluth for violations of water discharge rules stemming from an August 2024 incident. The city released approximately 1.7 million gallons of treated drinking water from the Woodland Reservoir into Tischer Creek, introducing chlorine and ammonia lethal to aquatic life. The discharge killed an estimated 2,300 fish, including nearly 1,600 brook trout. As part of the settlement, Duluth will pay a $12,000 civil penalty and contribute $190,000 to natural resource damage restoration projects.
Municipal water systems and utilities handling drinking water infrastructure should review their discharge prevention protocols when conducting reservoir maintenance or sanitization. The settlement requires the city to implement a learn-to-fish program in coordination with Hartley Nature Center and fund projects removing fish migration barriers. While corrective actions have been completed, this enforcement action demonstrates MPCA's commitment to recovering damages for environmental harm and penalizing parties responsible for water pollution incidents.
What to do next
- Review reservoir sanitization procedures to prevent discharge of treated water to surface waters
- Update emergency response protocols for equipment failures affecting drinking water systems
- Verify stormwater pollution prevention programs address potential discharges from drinking water infrastructure
Penalties
$12,000 civil penalty plus $190,000 in natural resource damage assessment compensation
Source document (simplified)
News release
March 30, 2026
Contact
MPCA communications, news.mpca@state.mn.us
City of Duluth reaches settlement with MPCA, DNR on 2024 fish kill
The city of Duluth will pay a $12,000 fine and spend $190,000 in compensation for a 2024 incident that led to a fish kill in Tischer Creek. The compensation is a natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) claim for the incident that killed an estimated 2,300 fish. Nearly 1,600 of those fish were brook trout.
The incident occurred in August of 2024 when city crews released about 1.7 million gallons of treated drinking water from the Woodland Reservoir into Tischer Creek after experiencing a pump problem while sanitizing the reservoir. The water contained chlorine and ammonia as part of the drinking water treatment process and was considered safe to drink but fatal to fish.
The NRDA funds will be used for future restoration projects such as projects that remove barriers to fish migration and allow them to return to the impacted portion of the creek. The city will also implement a learn-to-fish program in coordination with the Hartley Nature Center.
The city of Duluth completed several corrective actions that include changes to the city’s stormwater pollution prevention program. It establishes processes and procedures to prevent future discharges from the drinking water system directly to lakes, rivers, streams and wetlands.
The MPCA remains committed to protecting human health and the environment by enforcing rules and regulations and limiting pollution emissions and discharges from facilities. When regulated parties do not fully comply with regulatory requirements, the resulting pollution can be harmful to people and the environment.
When calculating penalties, the MPCA considers how seriously the violations affected or could have affected the environment, and whether they were first-time or repeat violations. The agency also attempts to recover the economic benefit the company gained by failing to comply with environmental laws in a timely manner.
The NRDA aims to evaluate environmental harm caused by the release. They identify responsible parties and ensure the public is compensated for lost recreational and ecological benefits by implementing restoration projects benefiting the impacted resources.
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