Oct. 25--DUNKARD CREEK used to be a pretty decent place to fish.

Not any more. It's dead.

Pollution killed it.

Officials of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection won't admit that -- at least not in so many words. After a lot of head scratching and water sampling, they determined that golden algae killed off Dunkard's muskellunge, bass, minnows, mussels, crayfish and insects, 190 species in all.

Technically the DEP inspectors probably are correct that toxic algae did the dirty work, but focusing the blame on algae is sort of like saying an aggressive overgrowth of cells caused someone to die of lung cancer. It leaves out one important piece of information: What caused the cells to grow in the first place? Smoking? Asbestos exposure?

The algae that killed Dunkard's fish don't bloom in fresh water. They require salty or brackish water before they grow abundant enough to become a toxic menace.

Inspectors who tested Dunkard's water during the late-August fish kill found oodles of salty water. The water's ability to conduct electricity (one measure of saltiness) had skyrocketed to 56 times normal. Readings of chlorides and dissolved solids, two other measures, had reached 14 and 16 times normal, respectively.

A disgusted fisherman, writing on the WVAngler.com Web site, called the readings "higher than the Atlantic Ocean's. One good thing is that they weren't higher than the Dead Sea's."

Sampling data indicate that the saltiness came from Consol Energy's Blacksville No. 2 coal mine. Exactly how the water got that salty isn't yet confirmed, but it has been reported that Consol had contracted to dispose of gas-drilling "frack water" in some of the company's abandoned deep mines. Frack water, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, is chemical-saturated water used to fracture rock strata in deep gas wells. It can't legally be dumped into streams because it's so high in chlorides and dissolved solids.

The truth will come out eventually. It's already clear -- abundantly so -- that someone messed up badly.

Lawyers will probably decide who's to blame. Rather than anger the coal or gas industries, DEP officials might opt for the weasel route: impose a slap-on-the-wrist fine to whomever is responsible, let the federal government step in and administer some stiffer punishment, or punt the matter wholly over to the courts.

I only hope that when it comes, the magnitude of the punishment matches the magnitude of the disaster. The Dunkard spill wrecked an entire ecosystem. Restoration and recovery could take years or even decades.

In 2006, a CSX Corp. train derailed in Alabama, spilling carloads of soybeans into tiny Yellowleaf Creek. The decaying beans robbed the stream of its oxygen, killing fish, mussels and snails. CSX paid $491,976 in fines and damages.

Also in 2006, a Norfolk Southern train derailed near Portage Run, a top-notch trout stream in north-central Pennsylvania. Forty-seven thousand gallons of lye spilled into the creek, killing an estimated 571,000 fish in Portage Run and in 5 miles of Sinnemahoning Creek. Norfolk Southern eventually paid $7.35 million in fines and compensation.

When they have actually chosen to fine polluters, West Virginia's environmental regulators have historically tended to wield a light hand. That simply won't do this time.

Dunkard Creek's killers need to pay, and they need to pay dearly.

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