State and County Say Milton Landowner Must Clean Up Fish Kill on Their Property

On Thursday, State and Santa Rosa County officials told the property owners near ward basin in Milton that they are not going to clean up the fish kill in the area.

On January 5th, landowner Phyllis Blazier found thousands of dead mullet floating in ward basin near her property. The cause of the fish kill was the previous days’ cold weather.

Right after the discovery of the fish kill, state and county officials said that they would work together to clean up the mess. Since then, they have slowly backed off of their original promises.

The officials have come to the conclusion that the fish kill is an act of god and does not pose a health risk to residents in the area. Therefore, it’s not their responsibility to clean it up.

I applaud the state and county’s decision to not clean up the fish kill.

It was a smart decision, but they shouldn’t have originally told the landowners like Blazier that they were going to clean it up the fish kill, if they didn’t think they were going to have to clean it up. The elected officials did a poor job of managing their constituent’s expectations of them.

[Photo Via Pensacola News Journal]