HERRIN - A business owner who declined comment two years earlier about a fish kill on the 60-acre Herrin City Lake is talking now.

Pine Lakes Golf Course owner Phil Preston is convinced a city sewage overflow from a manhole off Illinois 148 south of town where his golf course is located, spilled into a culvert and eventually drained into the lake, causing the fish kill.

"People who use the lake deserve to know what's going on," Preston said on Friday, pointing out that his golf course that surrounds the lake draws water from it for course upkeep.

He has visited with state officials and contacted Herrin Mayor Vic Ritter about the perceived problem and is worried that another sewage overflow will occur and possibly spill into the lake.

Preston said his anxiety level went up during the recent October rains. A red light at a nearby sewage lift station blinked continuously, meaning it had reached its maximum storage level, he said.

"That lift station is not right," Preston said.

Illinois District of Natural Resources officials reported then the fish kill was attributed to hot weather and a low water level that decreased oxygen needed for fish to survive. Their summations at the time were relayed publicly by Ritter.

A check with state officials with the IDNR and Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) on Friday snagged the same in-formation.

"This incident (fish kill) occurred in September 2007. There was a fish kill. A lift station failed a week later. It was repaired the same day by City of Herrin crews. These are totally unrelated issues. There is absolutely no connection," said spokeswoman Maggie Carson of the IEPA office in Springfield.

Ritter said Friday he knows of no other problems related to sewage in the area and denies the sewage lift station light Preston talked about, blinks continuously during rain storms. The mayor said city crews did some maintenance upkeep at the lift station about a month earlier.

"This (fish kill) had nothing to do with that lift station. We (city crews) helped him (Preston) take those dead fish out of the lake in the cleanup effort, and this is what we get in return," Ritter said.

scott.fitzgerald@thesouthern.com

618-351-5076