Thousands of Fish Were Killed When This California Lake Dried Up Overnight

Last week, a Northern California reservoir ran completely dry in one night, and no one can explain why the hell it happened. Thousands of fish are now lying dead in what had been—until last week—the Mountain Meadows reservoir. And although the California drought continues to wreak havoc in the area, some residents certainly have some pretty nefarious theories about the occurrence, suggesting corporate foul play and fishy mass murder.

"Everywhere that you see that's wet, there was water," said one local named Eddie Bauer (evidently no relation to the clothing retailer). Bauer told CBS News that the befuddling situation was completely unprecedented, as the reservoir had never before—at least to his knowledge—run dry.

The reservoir is also referred to as Walker Lake and has served as a popular fishing spot for residents of Susanville, California. At the time of the incident, it was filled with literally thousands of fish.

But here's the thing: the now-empty body of water is owned by Pacific Gas & Electric Company, and was used as a source of hydroelectric power for the area. Some residents are now claiming that PG&E caused the overnight disappearance of the lake's liquid contents. PG&E, naturally, heartily disagrees.

"It's the situation we worked hard to avoid, but the reality is we're in a very serious drought, there's also concerns for the fish downstream," lamented company spokesman Paul Moreno. Just in case you were blissfully unaware, PG&E is the company alleged to have caused the environmental disaster detailed in the movie Erin Brockovich. (The lawsuit depicted in the movie was settled out of court.)

Bauer told CBS Sacramento that the lake seemed to have had enough water to last at least two weeks, and that there was clearly ample time for Pacific Gas & Electric to have relocated the now dead fish if they intended to empty it completely. "This makes me feel like they didn't want to do a fish rescue and that it was easier to open that sucker up Saturday night," he said, referring to the reservoir's dam.

Pacific Gas & Electric officials, on the other hand, are saying that nobody had opened the dam and that the water had simply run out.

Regardless of any possible clandestine corporate cover-ups, most locals are more concerned that this could become an unwelcome trend in a state desperately struggling with a devastating and widespread drought. Doug Carlson of the California Department of Water Resources said, "The reservoirs are all continuing to be far below normal." Could this become a statewide problem?

Quite possibly. In fact, workers at nearby Folsom Lake in Northern California are nearing completion on a series of floating barges that would pump emergency water into the city of Folsom and its prison in the event that water levels do lower to dangerous levels.

"We are reliant upon rainfall to fill those lakes, of course, and until we get more rain we're not likely to see any appreciable increase in the reservoir levels," remarked Carlson.

Maybe we can get John Grisham to write up a thrilling, Brockovich-style legal mystery in tribute of all those dead fish. At the very least, we know David E. Kelley is probably available.