Environmental disaster – Or: up to 100 tons of dead fish expected

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German water expert Sascha Maier estimates the number of fish that have died in the Oder in recent days at a maximum of 100 tons. The expert from the environmental organization BUND said on Monday that it was an extrapolation based on the reports on individual collections. The environmental disaster struck the Oder over a length of about 500 kilometers. Firefighters have recovered about 80 tons of dead fish since Friday, a spokesman for the Polish professional fire service said.

The magnitude is comparable to the Sandoz disaster of 1986, Maier said. At that time, a fire broke out in a Swiss warehouse at the chemical company Sandoz (now Novartis). Large amounts of contaminated fire extinguishing water ended up in the Rhine and caused many fish deaths. At the time, the accident prompted international alarm and reporting plans by residents of the river – and that is exactly what has not been observed on the Oder, says Maier.

In its words, the BUND assumes that on the Polish side there was “an illegal discharge of chemicals” into the Oder. “We can assume that a pollution wave has flowed through the Oder.” There were also factors such as low tides or work on the Oder extension, which would have taxed the fish and the ecosystem beforehand.

“Too much time has passed”
Maier criticized the fact that the expansion work on the Polish side was monitored “very slowly”. Even after the first reports of dead fish, the “core failure in Poland” was there. But on the German side, not everything went smoothly following the fish kills last week. More labs for analysis should have been included immediately, Maier said. “Too much time has passed.”

Cause still unclear
Germany and Poland want to clarify the fish mortality in the Oder after the omissions of recent days, but continue to puzzle over the cause. According to the Polish government, no toxic substances were found in laboratory tests of dead fish from the river. The fish were examined for mercury and other heavy metals, Polish Environment Minister Anna Moskwa said on Sunday in Szczecin during a joint press conference with German Environment Minister Steffi Lemke.

Joint Task Force
With a joint task force, Germany and Poland now want to combat the massive fish deaths in the border river. The German Federal Environment Ministry announced Monday after a meeting of government representatives that experts from both countries should work closely together to identify the causes and develop the necessary measures. According to the information, the investigations of water samples and fish in the state of Brandenburg are currently being carried out with the support of the federal authorities. More concrete results can be expected on Tuesday, according to a spokesperson for the federal Ministry of the Environment.

Source: Krone

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