The cause of the devastating fish kill in the Oder continues to be a mystery. At a crisis meeting of German and Polish government representatives, a joint task force to investigate the causes was set up. Meanwhile, according to Brandenburg’s Environment Minister Axel Vogel (Greens), experts were looking for 300 possible trigger substances for what was happening in laboratories.
“We’re poking around in the dark,” said Vogel on Monday after a visit to the Oder near Lebus. In German and Polish laboratories, insecticides and pesticides, among other things, are now being searched for as a possible reason for the massive fish poisoning. So far, the only thing that is certain is that the water of the Oder has an “anomaly” that is still inexplicable.
According to Vogel, among other things, the salinity and pH of the Oder are so high that they are “toxic” in and of themselves. In addition, the oxygen concentration in the water is greatly increased, although given the high temperatures and low water level, the opposite would be expected. It can be assumed that these measured values are a reaction to the unknown substances that caused the fish to die.
The BUND water expert Sascha Maier estimated the amount of fish that had died in the Oder in the past few days on Monday at up to 100 tons. This is an extrapolation based on the reports on individual collection campaigns, said the expert from the environmental organization of the German Press Agency.
The environmental disaster affects the Oder over a length of about 500 kilometers, Maier explained. The publication “Riffreporter” had previously reported on it. On the Oder section alone in the Lubusz Voivodeship, ten tons of dead fish were recovered on Sunday, the head of the fire brigade in Slubice told the PAP news agency on Monday.
The dimension is comparable to the Sandoz disaster of 1986, Maier told the dpa. At that time, a fire broke out in a Swiss warehouse at the chemical company Sandoz (now Novartis). Large quantities of contaminated extinguishing water got into the Rhine and caused a large number of fish to die. The accident at that time was the reason for international alarm and reporting plans by riverside residents – and these are exactly what have now not been complied with on the Oder, said Maier.
In his words, the BUND assumes that there was “an illegal discharge of chemicals” into the Oder on the Polish side. “We can assume that there was a wave of pollution that flowed through the Oder.” There were also factors such as low water or work on the Oder expansion, which would have stressed the fish and the ecosystem beforehand.
Maier criticized the fact that the expansion work on the Polish side was “controlled very slowly”. Even after the first reports of dead fish, the “core failure in Poland” was there. But not everything went smoothly on the German side in response to the fish kill last week. More laboratories should have been included for analyzes immediately, said Maier. “Too much time has passed.”
Government representatives from Poland and Germany met at the highest level in Szczecin on Sunday evening to discuss joint action. Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) and her Polish counterpart Anna Moskwa also attended. According to the Federal Environment Ministry, a task force was agreed in which Polish and German experts are now working together on crisis response and cause research.
According to the ministry, more concrete analysis results are expected “early in the week”. The extent of the ecological damage in the river bordering Poland is “not yet foreseeable,” it said on Monday in Berlin.
On the German side, the fish kill was noticed about a week ago and triggered corresponding reactions from the authorities. People were officially warned not to use the Oder water. In addition, locks were closed, among other things, to protect waters connected to the Oder.
In Poland, however, the fish kill had been observed for the first time about a week and a half earlier, without the local authorities taking any action or warning. The authorities only reacted there last week and provided initial information. This led to criticism of the information policy of those responsible in Poland and Germany.
According to previous information, there were indications of poisoning and fish deaths for the first time on July 28 in the region around the Polish city of Wroclaw. So far, however, it is unclear who or what could be responsible. The water then gradually moved towards the mouth of the Oder on the Baltic Sea.
Meanwhile, the behavior of the Polish authorities continued to cause massive upset. Federal Environment Minister Lemke spoke on Monday in the ARD “Morgenmagazin” of a “loss of confidence”. In addition, the “identification of the cause of the damage” is made more difficult by the fact that information from Poland reached the German authorities too late, the minister added.
Brandenburg’s Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD) said in Lebus on Monday that he was “angry” about the Polish side. The events would have to be “urgently” processed. First of all, however, it is “essentially important” to determine the cause. This is the only way to assess, among other things, whether the Oderwasser continues to pose a risk or not.
According to Vogel, initial assumptions about mercury poisoning as the cause were not confirmed. According to the State Minister for the Environment, a very high concentration of mercury was recorded in one water sample last week, but not in others. Overall, the mercury content of the Oder is within or only slightly above the tolerance range.
