Dried Up Pond Exposing Giant, Stinky, Dead Fish

Fish. It’s not what’s dinner. It’s what’s creating a stink in one Upper Valley neighborhood. The Los Nogales Acres retention pond is almost completely dried up exposing giant, dead, smelly fish. “It’s really gross and I want to know what I can do to help,” AJ Avila said. Avila passes the pond on his way home from school everyday. “There were fish, some like three feet long. They’re dead because there’s no water,” Avila said. “There are even like 20 in one spot.” ABC-7 cameras spotted the rotting fish just about 30 feet away from some neighbors’ backyards. “We’ve never seen the water level this wrong,” Martha Brabaek said. Brabaek was going for a run with her 5-year-old daughter. “People used to fish here all the time,” Brabaek said. “but clearly, that’s not happening these days.” City officials blame farmers in New Mexico for the lack of irrigation water in the retention pond. They said they hope to have the pond filled by Saturday. “I just want to see something done before something worse happens,” Avila said.