From the Indianapolis Star:
In mid-December 1999, fish began to die by the thousands in White River in Madison County. An unknown pollutant had passed through the Anderson wastewater treatment plant and entered the river, causing one of the state's worst environmental disasters.
The pollution spread for 50 miles into three counties. By Spring 2000 cleanup crews had hauled away 117 tons of dead fish. A state report later estimated the total loss at 187 tons, or 4.6 million fish, and that the river was "a total kill zone" from from Anderson to northern Marion county.
On Dec. 28, 1999, Lori Kaplan, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Management, said her department believed the contamination originated at Guide Corp., an automotive parts manufacturer and the second largest employer in Anderson.
On Jan. 11, 2000, Indiana Gov. Frank O'Bannon said he would seek a federal investigation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies into whether there were violations of the Clean Water Act.
The next day, state environmental inspectors used a court-issued warrant to search the Guide Corp. premises, looking for evidence related to the discharge. In February the state brought in a former Justice Department attorney, Linda L. Pence, to assist in the investigation.
On April 27, 2000, the state of Indiana and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency filed separate lawsuits against Guide and an Ohio-based company that had served as a consultant to Guide.
The suits alleged that Guide employees, in a rush to meet a deadline closing a wastewater treatment plant, discharged massive amounts of the chemical HMP-2000 into city sewers to the Anderson wastewater treatment plant, corrupting the process there and spewing out a blanket of toxic foam.