After a two-and-a-half month investigation, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has not been able to pin down the cause of a massive fish kill that took place in the Shores subdivision at the end of April.
The department did find pesticide residue in subdivision lakes and said one law was broken by Allstate Resource Management, a pesticide application contractor hired by Shores community manager Elliott Merrill Company.
Pesticides applied by Allstate were suspected in the death of hundreds of large snook, ladyfish, sheepshead and tarpon.
“There were dead fish everywhere,” said Wyatt Guy, who reported the kill to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “It looked like someone had been spraying along the edge of the lakes. It was heartbreaking to see all those fish killed.
Josh Nezbit confirmed the kill was widespread. “The worst of it was at the end of the lake right by the construction entrance, but there were dead fish in all the lakes. It smelled really bad. It is a real shame what happened.”
Nezbit and Guy both work for a swimming pool maintenance and repair business active in the upscale subdivision, where million-dollar homes are built on the shores of a sprawling interconnected network of narrow lakes.
Because pesticides were the apparent cause of the kill, Florida Fish and Wildlife handed the investigation off to the Department of Agriculture, which “is the state licensing agency in Florida for pesticide applicators who must be licensed to use EPA registered, restricted-use pesticides … [and] is responsible for enforcing all pesticide regulations and laws, both state and federal,” according to the department’s website.
Agriculture took water samples, sent them off for testing and conducted interviews to try and figure out what killed the fish.
The department documented application of Tribune Herbicide and SeClear Algaecide by an Allstate pesticide handler and found 2, 4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid in the water samples: 2, 4-D is a common pesticide ingredient that, strangely, is not found in Tribune or SeClear.
A July letter to the Shores Property Owners Association from Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Adam Putnam states, “After a compete review of the case file regarding this investigation, the report of fish kill precipitated by pesticide use could not be confirmed. However, a violation unrelated to the report was identified during the investigation.”
That violation of state law was a failure by the Allstate employee to wear proper protective clothing while mixing and applying pesticides in the subdivision.
Allstate, which is headquartered in Davie, FL, specializes in lake and wetland management, stormwater systems, aquatic pest control and related services. Its website states, “All of our technicians are thoroughly trained and certified in order to meet the strict standards imposed by governmental agencies,” but apparently the guy at the Shores did not get the memo.
The fact that he was careless of his own health naturally raises the question if he was careless about the health of the environment.
When the kill occurred Elliott Merrill was not forthcoming about its role. Only after an article about the event appeared in Vero Beach 32963 did an executive send an email stating the Shores Property Owners Association, not Elliott Merrill, hired the pesticide contractor. That claim is contradicted by the state investigation.
In contrast to Elliott Merrill, the Property Owners Association was very helpful and forthcoming.
Dave Morgan, a member of the POA board who is also a board member at the Environmental Learning Center, promptly answered questions about events surrounding the incident and emphasized residents’ concern for the natural world.
“We have nothing to hide and only want what is best for our community and the environment,” Morgan wrote in an e-mail to Vero Beach 32963. “The Shores is a beautiful community. The owners here care about the environment and constantly alert landscape and other service providers to observe all local and state regulations concerning our community.”