What killed tons of fish in European river? Mystery deepens:
Laboratory tests following a mass die-off of fish in the Oder River detected high levels of salinity but no mercury poisoning its waters, Poland's environment minister said Saturday as the mystery continued as to what killed tons of fish in Central Europe.
Anna Moskwa, the minister of climate and environment, said analyses of river samples taken in both Poland and Germany revealed elevated salt levels. Comprehensive toxicology studies are still underway in Poland, she said.
[...] The Oder River runs from Czechia to the border between Poland and Germany before flowing into the Baltic Sea. Some German media had suggested that the river have been be poisoned with mercury.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Friday that "huge amounts of chemical waste" were probably dumped intentionally into his country's second-longest river, causing environmental damage so severe it would take years for the waterway to recover.
[...] "The extent of the fish die-off is shocking. This is a blow to the Oder as a waterway of great ecological value, from which it will presumably not recover for a long time," said Alex Vogel, the environment minister for Germany's Brandenburg state, along which the river runs.
The head of Polish waters, Poland's national water management authority, said Thursday that 10 tons of dead fish had been removed from the river. Hundreds of volunteers were working to help collect dead fish along the German side.
German laboratories said they detected "atypical" levels of "salts" that could be linked to the die-off but wouldn't fully explain them on their own.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 17 2022, @04:02AM (1 child)
If the salt levels have risen suddenly, this sounds like the river cut (eroded) into a large ancient salt deposit. Or perhaps broke through into an abandoned salt mine?
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Wednesday August 17 2022, @05:38AM
Or it could just contain less water and thus the same amount of salt is distributed in less solvent.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Wednesday August 17 2022, @05:29AM
The mystery may be getting deeper, but (this summer) the river definitely isn't.
(Score: 2) by MIRV888 on Wednesday August 17 2022, @05:39AM (4 children)
There's no way this was an accident or a salt deposit.
As the article says 'huge amounts of chemical waste' were probably dumped intentionally.
Given the current political state of eastern Europe, there's all sorts of possibilities.
(Score: 2) by ewk on Wednesday August 17 2022, @06:19AM (2 children)
What has political climate of eastern Europe suddenly to do with it?
This is about Central Europe... the usual description given to (roughly) the regions we now label Baltic States, Poland, Belarus, (Western part of) Ukraine, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary (and a few more).
Seems someone is still stuck in the Cold War with an East-West division along the Iron Curtain...
I don't always react, but when I do, I do it on SoylentNews
(Score: 3, Interesting) by gnuman on Wednesday August 17 2022, @10:38AM (1 child)
You also forgot East Germany -- they are still salty about unification (yeah, I know, bad pun)
As for political climate of eastern Europe? Let's just say, they liked their democracy for a few years but are on a march back into trusting embrace of an autocracy.
Poland -- check. Poland is not really a liberal democracy anymore, opposition is vilified in state media
Belarus -- dictatorship. do we need to say more?
Ukraine -- right-wing extremists are not uncommon, like UPA. Also, see previous governments. Current one is kind of an exception to the nationalists. But current situation is masking things. The war is also making political situation one sided, for obvious reasons. So can't make too many definitive comments here.
Hungary -- not really even democratic anymore. They have vote but opposition voices are basically banned or made fun of (publicaly).
East Germany -- they dumped far-left and now are voting for far-right. Wheee!
Russia -- they have elections too ;)
there was lots of progressive hope in the 1990s here, but now it descended back into authoritarianism where opposition is publicly vilified on state owned media, and most of it is state owned. Language barrier and all that prevent the change in this status-quo.
Not so much. Look at the political climate of these nations prior to WWII and you'll find that it's not much different from today.
Liberal Democracies is not something guaranteed or automatic. It's kind of this unstable equilibrium of stability that if you take for granted, you'll get thrust into authoritarianism. Everyone in a nation has to work together to keep Liberal Democracy alive and this starts at school with civic classes. Even US is well on its way to an autocracy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_democracy [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by ewk on Wednesday August 17 2022, @11:32AM
Nice rant, but you miss the point apparently. The original posting had it geographically correct: 'Central Europe'.
Not eastern europe. That is simply a bit more to, well, the east :-)
Just one point from personal experience:
Poland -- check. Poland is not really a liberal democracy anymore, opposition is vilified in state media
When PO had the power, they did exactly the same as now PIS is doing. And before that it was the same with the party in power at that time.
Not saying it is OK, but already from day 1 (after communism left) this is the way how it works in Poland.
So, your 'vilification' is nothing new and/or particular to the current situation. And, really, the Polish people see right through it all the time.
The only thing that differs (from before 1 May 2004) is that the opposition now has an additional channel to use to complain: the EU.
Anyway, once the Polish people are fed up with PIS they will vote for another party.
And, if you followed recent Polish politics a bit lately, you see that even PIS is not immune/invulnerable to criticism (i.e. EU forcing back some reforms in the judicial system).
Not sure how this (some sort of Über-goverment controlling the way countries re run) messes up your ideals of a Liberal Democracy, but there you go.
Damn, and there I was promising myself not to make this political :-)
I don't always react, but when I do, I do it on SoylentNews
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday August 17 2022, @11:04AM
I've seen mine tailings spills do this sort of thing. For example, here [wikipedia.org], here [wikipedia.org], or here [wikipedia.org]. The middle one was even caused in the course of attempting to drain the pond.
So I have to say that accidents are still on the table.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 17 2022, @08:50PM
First, only the fan of one of political parties may blame the specific party of being the same as the other party when it comes to using media, because they go worse. In fact it just goes downhill since the fall of socialism in 1989. It started by conventional threats to journalists, and went more and more serious with each new government. It is not dependent on the specific party - IMHO every new ruling party considers media industry as an useful propaganda tool and their autocratic characteristics are just extended as it is not in anybody's interest to fix this.
The dead fish may emerge from many activities present in the country, including rains washing chemicals from fields, using unauthorized pesticide mix, breaching a long-closed mine drainage system (there are many closed coal and ore mines all over Silesia, and recently some are illegally opened for a small scale illegal excavations, however this goes a bit more to the south) or intentional action. Recently dead fish have been found too in south of Poland, and it was the result of lakes drying, but the media are doing the second Odra of it.
Nevertheless, a few years ago a local factory polluted Warta river [1]. Additionally, Poland has significant problem with chemical and plastic/tire waste[2] - the common practice is to run the "storage facility" and when it becomes full, set fire to it and run away (jargon: "send it to the cloud"). Another interesting way is to rent the terrain, dump chemicals and get out as fast as possible. Usually the cost of proper recycling is then owner's trouble. So now you know why there is a significant suspicion that this is an intentional dump to the river.
The first information about pollution was from Gliwice canal[3] which has been always quite polluted, as the recreational areas are mixed with industrial areas along it. Then, the dead fish were seen near Oława, on the other side of Opole city. This is quite a long piece of river with various things along and there is no information were samples taken in between.
The initial blame was to the paper factory in Oława, however they shown they had documentation for their pollution. Simultaneously the information about "mercury" has been released - both of these news were amplified by government trolls, but not in official media (?were afraid of court action from paper factory?). There is no detailed information is it metallic mercury or bound in salts. After the news, the paper factory put a statement[4] about their technology not using such chemicals. Then, media demented the "mercury version" blaming it as the translation mistake, still without information is it about metallic mercury or mercury compounds, and started to inform that there are "salts". No information which salts. Potassium cyanide??? Technically this is a salt too, but I would not want such salt in my dish (responding to using of chemical-grade road salt as food salt, also in Poland. Court has ruled that this is not a health problem, so the suspects became innocent).
Now Polish Environment Institute informed about the mercury (again - in which form?) that it is in Gliwicki Canal and Kędzierzyński Canal[5].
The interesting thing is the lack of chemical details, and it really looks fishy. Now my personal opinion, which suddenly is for some reason not considered even by the most anti-ruling party media - there is a national weapon factory along Gliwicki Canal. Officially they are mechanical factory, they are building trucks, transporters and tanks. However, in 2003 they got a 50-year certificate allowing to manufacture munitions and initiation materials[6], being extension of 1990 certificate. You don't want to see how the environment protection looked like in Poland in 1990. The sluggishness in revealing which chemical compounds or even more important elements are there and drifting around the mercury suggests something with double purpose, for example the mercury fulminate, used in munitions manufacturing. However, even in Poland, one does not just throw significant amount of "popping powder" to the canal, especially that this is not a cheap chemical when specific condition is needed for using in manufacturing.
So, IMHO, there could be a deposit of it somewhere under the water, being a residue from e.g. pouring the low-percentage but poorly mixed solution to the water in one spot, which now, when water level is low, is gradually dissolving and flowing along when conditions allow. I have no idea was it possible to inspect munition's factory access to the canal, but from what I see in this country the national factories are always not guilty, so probably not.
Sources are from Poland. These are typical newspaper scraps.
[1] https://plus.gloswielkopolski.pl/zatrucie-warty-szef-brosa-powiedzial-ze-zatrzyma-mnie-policja-i-lepiej-za-duzo-nie-mowic-tak-wyjasnial-podejrzany-pracownik/ar/c1-14637281 [gloswielkopolski.pl]
[2] https://zielona.interia.pl/polityka-klimatyczna/polska/news-niezaopiekowane-odpady-mafia-smieciowa-je-spali-i-zarobi-na-,nId,5974478 [interia.pl]
[2] https://wiadomosci.wp.pl/pozar-skladowiska-opon-ogromne-kleby-dymu-6733025867344576a [wiadomosci.wp.pl]
[2] https://portalkomunalny.pl/pozar-na-nielegalnym-skladowisku-chemikaliow-w-nowinach-prokuratura-oskarza-dwie-osoby-421144/ [portalkomunalny.pl]
[3] https://www.24gliwice.pl/wiadomosci/co-wytrulo-ryby-w-kanale-gliwickim-czas-mija-badane-sa-kolejne-probki-wody-winnych-na-razie-brak/ [24gliwice.pl]
[4] http://jack-pol.pl/pl/oswiadczenie.php [jack-pol.pl]
[5] https://www.gios.gov.pl/pl/aktualnosci/899-badania-probek-stan-odry-sie-poprawia [gios.gov.pl]
[6] https://bumar.gliwice.pl/storage/certificates/April2019/qaDxLxFQ6ImLBhjXkSW5.pdf [gliwice.pl]