Officials are trying to figure out what killed more than 1,000 fish in two Henrico County ponds.
The ponds — one small, one larger — are in the Winchester Green area in western Henrico.
"Everything is just dead. It's the strangest thing," said Sandra Register of the 2600 block of Caitlin Court. "It's very disturbing."
The dead fish included carp, catfish and sunfish, according to Register.
The incident was reported to the state Department of Environmental Quality on Monday, said DEQ spokesman Bill Hayden.
About 1,100 fish died, Hayden said. Investigators also found a dead beaver on a sand bar, but it's unclear if that is related.
Chlorinated water from a break in a nearby waterline could have killed the fish, "but we do not have specific test results to show that," Hayden said.
Fish kills in ponds are more common in summer when hot weather robs the water of oxygen. "It's unusual to have any kind of kill in the wintertime," Hayden said.
Arthur D. Petrini, Henrico's public utilities director, said it's unclear whether the waterline break caused the deaths. "It's all speculation right now," he said.
Keith White, a senior engineer with Henrico's Public Works Department, said an investigation is under way.
"We couldn't find any evidence of dumping or a spill upstream," White said.
Register, whose home is near the ponds, said the smell is "starting to get a little gamey."
"It's not so much that we want to assign blame," she said, "but we want to know the cause."
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