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ANCHORAGE - Pollutants from a new road in the Tongass National Forest are leaching into streams that drain into a popular lake, harming fish and other aquatic life, federal officials said Wednesday.

Recent tests found that fish had abandoned the lower reaches of six unnamed streams that empty into two other streams that are important local sources of coho and sockeye salmon, said Jason Anderson, a Tongass National Forest's district ranger.

The tests also found dead aquatic bugs.

State and federal agencies said the pollutants come from naturally contaminated shale that was used last year to build a road and stream culverts on Prince of Wales Island.

Because the pollution has already caused damage, "this is way beyond a normal permit violation," said Jennifer Roberts, the federal facilities program manager in the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation's contaminated sites program.

The DEC and other agencies have begun an investigation to figure out how to eliminate the source of the pollution.

Federal contractors had quarried the "bad rock" from a right-of-way along the road route and used it to build culverts over the streams.

Federal officials said they plan to pave the Coffman Cove Road this year, but not the contaminated three-and-half-mile segment, which may need to be excavated.

The Forest Service said it also will host public meetings about the pollution.

The first sign of trouble showed up last fall, when work crews noticed that temporary metal culverts built into the streams had become severely corroded, Anderson said.

Additional testing this spring showed that the water contained to much acid and an overabundance of heavy metals including copper and iron. The acid causes copper and iron from the rock to dissolve into the water.

People in Coffman Cove are concerned about the status of the road project and don't have a sense of how bad the environmental problem is, said Elaine Price, a project manager for the city.

"It's a freak thing," she said.