Workers race to clear Piedmont Park lake before McCartney concert

By KATIE LESLIE

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Cleanup of Piedmont Park’s Lake Clara Meer continued Tuesday as workers scooped up thousands of dead fish in August’s brutal heat.

Two men trawled the lake in a flat-bottom boat while city workers and others performing community service used hand-held nets to remove the floating fish. One man, 18-year-old Johnny Skandalakis, removed a fish nearly 4 feet long, weighing 30 pounds, he said, proudly displaying the specimen on his cellphone.

Ronald Barnes Jr., 21, said the lake was covered with the floating dead when his group joined the cleanup around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. He estimated his group had filled roughly 60 plastic bags with the remains.

And yes, it smelled.

Monica Thornton, vice president of the Piedmont Park Conservancy, said the nonprofit which oversees the park has consulted with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to determine the cause of the incident. DNR has met with the conservancy’s lake management group and said the deaths were the result of a naturally occurring algae bloom, she said.

The deaths occur as algae can quickly multiply, especially in hot, dry weather. If not controlled, the algae eventually dies and takes oxygen with it, said fisheries biologist Chris Nelson of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

Thornton said rumors that the conservancy or management group sprayed something in or near the lake, precipitating the deaths, simply aren’t true.

“DNR told us it’s an algae bloom. We have absolutely no reason to think it’s anything else,” she said. “We want the investigation to take its full course. We want DNR to make a determination based on science and not passer-by speculation.”

Thornton said cleanup should be completed in time for this Saturday’s Paul McCartney concert.

“From 24 hours ago, we’ve made tremendous progress,” she said.

The conservancy’s next step is to embark on its annual fisheries study to test the water and determine what species remain in the lake and what should be brought in to refill the lake population.

- Staff writer Rhonda Cook contributed to this report.