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Environmental catastrophe: Hope for quick knowledge

2022-08-15T14:58:16.304Z


Environmental catastrophe: Hope for quick knowledge Created: 08/15/2022Updated: 08/15/2022, 16:54 View of the German-Polish border river Oder in the direction of Frankfurt (Oder). © Patrick Pleul/dpa In the mid-1980s, the Sandoz catastrophe on the Rhine made history. The puzzling fish kill on the Oder is quite comparable to that, say environmentalists. Only: Unlike back then, we still don't kno


Environmental catastrophe: Hope for quick knowledge

Created: 08/15/2022Updated: 08/15/2022, 16:54

View of the German-Polish border river Oder in the direction of Frankfurt (Oder).

© Patrick Pleul/dpa

In the mid-1980s, the Sandoz catastrophe on the Rhine made history.

The puzzling fish kill on the Oder is quite comparable to that, say environmentalists.

Only: Unlike back then, we still don't know the cause.

Lebus - After the mass death of fish in the Oder, the German authorities are hoping for quick information on the cause of the environmental disaster.

The Federal Environment Ministry announced that the results might be available by Tuesday.

The Polish authorities only made it clear that it was probably not mercury that killed the animals.

According to an estimate by the environmental association BUND, up to 100 tons of fish have died in the Oder in the past few days.

500 kilometers of river are affected.

According to government information, Polish authorities had the first indications at the end of July that there were masses of dead fish floating in the river.

Since last week there has also been an alarm mood in Germany.

Citizens should not touch the Oder water.

Volunteers fished tons of smelly carcasses out of the water to be burned at the PCK refinery site in Schwedt.

The long-term consequences for fish, animals and plants in the Oder region and the Baltic Sea cannot be foreseen.

From BUND's point of view, the catastrophe is comparable to the Sandoz accident of 1986, when, after a fire at the chemical company in Switzerland, large quantities of contaminated extinguishing water got into the Rhine and caused a large number of fish to die.

At that time - unlike today - the source of the pollution was known, said BUND water expert Sascha Maier of the German Press Agency.

Both the federal government and the state of Brandenburg reiterated their dissatisfaction with the lack of information from Poland on Monday.

Brandenburg's Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke criticized the information that came only "a little bit" or "not at all" during a visit to Lebus an der Oder, where he wanted to get an idea of ​​the situation.

The SPD politician affirmed: "We do not yet know exactly what caused these symptoms of poisoning in the fish."

The Polish side is in the process of searching for 300 substances in its central laboratory, reported State Environment Minister Axel Vogel (Greens) on site.

At the present time, it can be ruled out that the fish died from mercury.

The German and Polish sides are now working more closely together than in the past.

Experts from both countries want to meet from Tuesday.

The Federal Environment Ministry also named Tuesday as a possible date for the first test results of water and fish.

According to State Environment Minister Vogel, there is probably more than one cause for the fish kill.

The drought and the low water supply almost certainly had a part in it.

The entire ecosystem of the Oder is damaged.

"That's why we think that we don't have a catastrophe that can be solved within half a year by repopulating with fish."

The BUND also sees several causes.

Maier named factors such as low water or work on the Oder expansion that put stress on the fish and the ecosystem.

There was then an acute illegal discharge of chemicals on the Polish side.

"We can assume that there was a wave of pollution that flowed through the Oder," said the water expert.

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Friday that the fish kill was apparently caused by the discharge of a "huge amount" of chemical waste.

The Polish government offered a reward of more than 200,000 euros for the investigation.

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Oil barriers are intended to prevent fish carcasses from spreading in the Szczecin Lagoon, as announced by the Mecklenburg-Western Pomeranian Ministry of the Environment.

The Oder flows into the lagoon, which at around 900 square kilometers is about twice the size of Lake Constance.

Two thirds of it belongs to Poland.

Water connections to the Baltic Sea run from there.

So far, no dead fish have washed up from the Oder on the German side of the lagoon, it said.

According to the PAP agency, the head of the Polish regional administration for the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, Zbigniew Bogucki, said on Monday that the wave of contamination had not yet arrived in the Lagoon or in Szczecin.

"So it will come." dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-08-15

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