The Indiana Department of Environmental Management said it is monitoring Cheeney Creek in Fishers after a lift station failure caused raw sewage to spill into the creek, killing thousands of fish.

According to IDEM, the Allisonville Road Lift Station at the northwest corner of 106th Street and Allisonville Road was undergoing upgrades and suffered a failure that resulted in raw sewage entering Cheeney Creek.

The IDEM Emergency Response staff and Indiana Department of Natural Resources investigated the spill and found that approximately 9,000 fish and 1,000 crayfish were killed along a 1.4-mile stretch of the creek.

The lift station failure was repaired, and IDEM said it will continue to evaluate and monitor the incident, including compliance- and enforcement-related issues.

The lift station has experienced several sewage overflows in recent years, resulting in tens of thousands of gallons of sewage being released due to equipment failures and capacity exceedances.

A 2018 incident released between 300,000 and 400,000 gallons of sanitary sewer overflow. In April 2019, between 10,000 and 20,000 gallons were released while crews were replacing an isolation valve. In July 2020, 1,000 gallons were released when a utility company mistakenly bored through a water main.

In August 2020, IDEM approved the installation of new submersible pumps, pump drives, electrical control equipment and other upgrades at the Allisonville Road Lift Station.