DOW files law suit against Coors for killing 50,000 fish

DOW files law suit against Coors for killing 50,000 fish

August 28, 2001

By the Colorado Division of Wildlife

DENVER — The Colorado Division of Wildlife filed suit today in Jefferson County District Court against the Coors Brewing Co. to recover the value of more than 50,000 fish killed in August 2000 when the company discharged 77,000 gallons of beer into Clear Creek.

State law places the value of each fish at $35, making the total potential fine at least $1.75 million for the loss of the fish.

"We have had good faith and earnest discussions with Coors over the past year about the actual damage to the resource and what steps are appropriate to rectify that damage," said Division Director Russ George. "Now that it’s been a year, we feel it’s our duty as the state’s wildlife agency to file the complaint to protect Colorado’s aquatic resource and recover damages caused by this discharge. We will continue to meet with Coors to discuss this issue."

The complaint states that Coors discharged beer into the company’s wastewater treatment plant on Aug. 24, 2000. The solution, which contained yeast, malt and barley, was so organically strong that the plant stopped operating normally and the beer was released into Clear Creek with little or no treatment where it consumed the available oxygen. The discharge killed fish from the plant’s discharge outlet to 7.4 miles downstream on Clear Creek.

The species killed included sand shiners, creek chubs, fathead minnows, longnose dace, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, green sunfish, yellow perch, black bullhead, white sucker and longnose sucker. All fish in Colorado are considered game species except for threatened or endangered species.

State law provides that the Division has the right to recover the value of any wildlife unlawfully taken and has the right to bring civil action against any person to do so. Taking wildlife, or causing its death, may be done only as authorized by state statute or Division regulation.

The complaint states that Coors had no authorization to take fish and the spill was also in violation of the company’s permit to discharge treated waste from the plant into the creek.