A video taken by area residents shows hundreds of dead fish in the Chattooga River following an ammonia spill at Mount Vernon Mills last week.  The spill happened outside the mill as an Airgas company truck was delivering ammonia to the cotton mill.

The truck’s driver immediately called Chattooga 911 to report the spill, and the Trion Fire Department and Police Department, along with Hazmat officials from Chattanooga were on the scene.  Residents of nearby Sixth Street and Seventh Street were temporarily evacuated to the Trion Recreation Center and Trion First Baptist Church.

After the spill, Trion and Mount Vernon Mill officials released a statement saying around “thirty dead fish” had been reported in the river, and the EPD with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, along with town officials and officials from the mill, were monitoring the situation.

In the video, posted above, there are disturbing scenes of dead fish along the river and the narrator says that the “smell was ungodly…you can hardly bare the smell” along a two mile stretch of the river.