More dead fish have turned up in the North Alouette River.

Ken Knechtel, co-chair of the Alouette Valley Association, found more than a dozen freshwater bullheads lying on the bottom of the river near 227th Street in Maple Ridge on Wednesday. He discovered the dead fish 24 hours after he noticed the river water turn turquoise and cloudy. That indicates some kind of chemical was dumped in the river, Knechtel said.

“The river isn’t a sewer. It isn’t a ditch. It’s a living entity and it’s been hurt,” he said on Thursday. “Salmon fry are back in the area now, but not near what the population had been.”

The district immediately responded to the site when Knechtel reported the changes in river water on Tuesday. An environmental consultant visited the site to access the situation and no evidence was found at that time indicating fish kills or visible pollutants, said Rodney Stott, the district’s environmental planner. A water sample was collected and passed on to the Ministry of Environment for analysis. The district is still waiting to hear back from the lab.

Stott said staff surveyed the river again on Thursday morning, between 232nd and 224th streets, for evidence of water contamination and dead fish. Nothing was found.

“We’ve gone down to the sites and there’s nothing indicating that we need to shut the river down,” he added.

This is the second time in the past few months that fish have turned up dead in the North Alouette River. Thousands were found in the river east of Neaves Road in late May. Environment Canada tested the fish and couldn’t determine a cause of death. Fisheries and Oceans Canada is now investigating whether there’s a link between the dead fish and the water line illegally installed by Golden Eagle Group around the same time.