Lake City resident Art Van Cleit has been seeing some strange things lately in the creek that flows through his backyard, located near 19th Avenue NE and NE 130th.

During the last two weeks of April, he spotted soap suds and two dead turkeys floating in water, which is part of Thornton Creek, the city's largest stream network.

On the afternoon of May 1, Van Cleit discovered something more disturbing: dead fish.

Van Cleit quickly alerted one of his neighbors, Steve McArthur, a member of the Thornton Creek Watershed Committee, a volunteer citizens watchdog group that has been monitoring the water quality of the creek. McArthur arrived to count more than 100 dead fish in Van Cleit's backyard alone.

McArthur estimates that a total of as many as 500 fish may have been killed. The fish ranged in size from 4 inches to 10 inches and included both salmon and cutthroat trout.

It was not until the next day that any public officials or members of the media arrived to examine the situation. According to McArthur, many of the fish had floated downstream or been eaten by crows and other wildlife by that time. He said that media reports of 20 dead fish were inaccurate.

Tasha Bassett, a water quality investigator for the City of Seattle, said that a nearby resident was apparently cleaning concrete with a chemical that made its way into the creek, poisoning the fish.

McArthur said use of chemicals, fertilizers, and detergents are common ways that streams get polluted, and not just by people living near the creek. "Anything used miles away can end up polluting the creek. People have no understanding that water has life around it," he said.