Zander, carp or pike ... with landing nets, fishermen and firefighters recover thousands of dead fish that float in the Aisne, at Brécy-Brières (Ardennes), about fifty kilometers east of Reims. They are piling up at the side of the road, reported France 3 Grand Est on Tuesday evening. A scenario that recurred on Wednesday and should still be the same on Thursday.
“Over 6 to 8 km, everything was devastated,” explains Michel Adam, president of the Ardennes Fishing Federation, which filed a complaint against Nestlé on Wednesday. The pollution of the river "has resulted in a very high fish mortality due to the decrease in the oxygen content in the water", according to the prefecture of the Ardennes.
The factory shut down for a few days
The incident took place at around 9 p.m. on Sunday at the Nestlé plant wastewater treatment plant located in Challerange. The site which manufactures milk for the Nescafé Dolce Gusto pods, confirmed a "occasional and involuntary overflow of biological sludge effluents, without the presence of chemicals" from its wastewater treatment plant on Sunday evening.
"Upon learning of the report on Sunday at 11 pm, we immediately halted production and put an end to the spill," its director, Tony do Rio, said in a statement. “This spill was one-off over a period of less than three hours on Sunday,” he added, adding that the activity of the plant had been “stopped for a few days”, he said.
No fish mortality recorded on Wednesday
"A dam has been installed to contain the spread of pollution," said the prefecture of the Ardennes. “Over the past two days, more than two tonnes of fish have been removed. This work will continue »Thursday to recover the 3 tonnes of fish.
"However, no fish mortality was noted Wednesday (...), a sign of a probable dilution of the pollution slick", according to the prefecture. It provisionally banned "any nautical activity on the Aisne from Challerange to Vouziers".
According to Daniel Drivière, president of the Challerange fishing company, “we even found dead fish over 1.5 meters long. It is a disaster ”. Analyzes are in progress, in particular to determine possible chemical and / or bacteriological pollution.
