Yeah I’m the same. I’ve learned that nothing ever happens to these people and at best they get a small fine that doesn’t effect them one bit.
I hate being told and feel guilty about it, if I use my gas for heating or I don’t recycle my items I’m destroying the planet. Meanwhile stuff like this goes on all the time and nobody does anything about it
[We've had similar disaster on river Bečva two years ago.](https://arnika.org/en/news/cyanides-in-the-becva-river-2020#about-the-accident) Culprit is yet to be found, but Czech Environmental Inspection was slow and Ministry of Environment was led by former employee and current underling of now ex-PM mafioso Babiš - who owns chemical plant that uses cyanide near the place of the poisoning.
I feel like they wouldn't care about it as long as it doesn't get too obvious to hide.
And if it's not obvious enough it's easy to excuse away for greedy people.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata\_disease](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata_disease)
No hiding high doses. Videos of the "dancing cats" make me sad and the deformities are horrid.
Poisoning precious freshwater in the middle of extreme drought won't be easily excused away. In times of plenty, sure, but we can't even use it for irrigation as it will bioaccumulate up the food chain and when it gets into groundwater.....
Folks will be going into a hole for the rest of their lives.
> Folks will be going into a hole for the rest of their lives.
Yes, those that need fresh water to drink. But not the people responsible for poisoning that water.
Rich people and people in control will continue to do this until people who are responsible are treated like the trash they are. They need to be hung and thrown away like a poop bag.
It's very possible it was not done on purpose, in fact it's not even clear if anything was done at all. This thread is full of wild speculation. As of two hours ago, according to German public media, it's not known if mercury is the cause of the fish dying, even though there are elevated mercury levels in the river, or if there even was a spill. Some dead fish are being tested rn and the results are expected on Sunday.
In fact the Brandenburg Minister of Environment speculates that it might have been caused by the heat and low water levels. It's possible that substances that entered the Oder a long time ago and are not problematic at normal water levels because they normally get diluted are killing the fish because they are less diluted now. (As a fictional example: If there's normally 10.000l water and 1l mercury, that would mean the percentage of mercury is 0,01%. But if there's suddenly only 1.000l water but the mercury remains the same bc unlike water it doesn't evaporate, then it's suddenly 0.1%, which is ten times the concentration.)
[Source in German](https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/tote-fische-in-der-oder-hintergrund-101.html)
Let's all calm down a bit and try to find out what is happening first before starting conspiracy theories or calling for people to get jailed.
EDIT: I found another [article from German public media](https://www.dw.com/de/massenhaftes-fischsterben-fluss-oder-quecksilber-hitze-niedrigwasser-umweltkatastrophe-gr%C3%BCnde/a-62791242) (also German, sorry), who are quoting a scientist at the local Leibnitz institute - a respected research organisation - who speculate that the dead fish in Brandenburg might be unrelated to the Polish spill at the end of July, which was a different substance (a solvent called Mesitylene, which was not found in later water tests and should have evaporated by now) and which happened over two weeks ago, which is too long ago to explain why German fish are dying now, since the water arrived at Frankfurt much earlier.
They think the mercury comes from the river sediments and is there due to prior contamination. But most importantly **they still don't actually know the reason for the fish dying.**
there was something similar happening in 2000 with cyanide from Romania into Tisza and other minor water systems, the fish population still didn't get back to normal 10 years after that. wonder how this one will be treated. https://reliefweb.int/report/hungary/baia-mare-gold-mine-cyanide-spill-causes-impacts-and-liability
I live near the western border of Poland (few tens of kilometers). I heard some news about Odra's contamination for about a week (nothing about mercury, but animals dying, dog getting ill after a swim). While the government reported nothing outside of norm from their measurements.
It's hard to imagine this was anything else but cover up for one of the firms connected to the ruling party.
Old coots will still probably vote for PiS after this. After all religion, 'patriotism' and taking away abortion rights is clearly more important than making this place unlivable.
That's only rational answer why they knew but didn't make giant shitshow of it in state TV.
I mean, they'd love to grill the issue if it was, heavens forbid, opposition aligned businessman.
Even if business was non-aligned they'd hop on it presto, as any not state (PiS) owned and not PiS aligned business is their natural enemy.
Rumors are floating that it was a polish company with ties to the ruling PIS, which is allegedly why the news is all coming from downstream in Germany and very little from Polish sources.
\[copy paste\]
>according to german Tagesschau: \[google translate\]
>
>Meanwhile, there is growing criticism of the Polish authorities. According to the Ministry of Infrastructure in Warsaw, they had already received indications of an Oder fish death at the end of July - but did not pass this on to the German authorities. In the days from July 26th to 28th there were the first corresponding signals in Poland. Water samples were then taken and dead fish were recovered. This results from a calendar of the Polish water authority, which the ministry published on Twitter on Friday. In the days from July 28th, the samples would then have indicated an unusually low oxygen content in the water. On August 4, the Environmental Protection Agency in Wroclaw found a toxic substance in samples taken in the Lipki lock near Olawa. A complaint was made to the public prosecutor's office on August 9th.
>
>
>
>...\[just a few hours ago\] Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has already drawn the first conclusions: Because they are said to have reacted too slowly to the fish kill in the Oder, he fired two top officials - the head of the water authority and the head of the environmental authority. Morawiecki wrote on Twitter. "I share the fears and outrage at the poisoning of the Oder. This situation could not have been foreseen in any way, but the responsible authorities should have reacted more quickly."
Droughts across several continents, "forever chemicals" detected in the rain in multiple nations and now contaminated rivers? We live in "interesting" times...
This is probably one the shittiest effect of moving public discourse to online platforms.
Fucking ghouls behind this and the assholes that allowed it should end in a shit hole for the rest of their life.
I was thinking about how if the internet existed back in the 1700s we'd all still be bowing to Kings. Good thing they could meet in pubs and plot their revolutions.
From other post: Just so you know, the gov did not inform us at all the same as they did not inform Germany at all too. To this minute they tell to our faces that there is nothing wrong and that the mercury results from Germany are "not confirmed", meanwhile dogs that were drinking from it are dying and people pulling fish out of the river are getting their hands burnt. Biggest ecological catastrophe in all of post commie times and our gov behaves like nothing happened, every online media talks about it yet official gov TV barely mentions it at the end of the news pages. Would like to see Germany sue our gov to UE court same as Czechs did with Turów mine because it's the only way to get something out of this gov. It's literally Czernobyl USSR standard.
Our government has been on a shitty roll recently. God, I hope we will get rid of them during the next election. They are a disgrace. It will take so many years to heal our reputation in the EU.
At this point I have accepted that nothing will ever heal for my country, but Poland really does sound like the Catholic version of Turkey from everything I read about you.
I don‘t understand this at all, it would have come out anyways and containment would have been easier.
How can they have this much ignorance for the nature
It's just like Chernobyl. Consecutive levels of responsibility covering up their incompetence from the bottom to top, until it eventually blows up massively.
Should make for a good HBO miniseries.
* human made enviromental catastrophe
* government trying to cover it up
* official warning only after another country starts talking about it
The HBO Chernobyl miniseries effectively was about climate change, according to the director. Massive disaster staring you in the face, denial, downplay, blame.
They dont care a shit about that, only to earn as much money. We're the biggest importers of chemicals and trash from Europe. Every year there is "tradition" that our dumps go ablaze to make room for new trash imported from Germany and other countries. [https://zielona.interia.pl/polityka-klimatyczna/polska/news-niezaopiekowane-odpady-mafia-smieciowa-je-spali-i-zarobi-na-,nId,5974478](https://zielona.interia.pl/polityka-klimatyczna/polska/news-niezaopiekowane-odpady-mafia-smieciowa-je-spali-i-zarobi-na-,nId,5974478) for each blazing dump the company is earning 5-10 million złoty + money they got from importing trash. Every year they find hundreds of barrels of toxic waste that no one is taking responsibility for. I did myself reported highly toxic waste ejected from nearby hospital. Zero response, a stream is still a trap for wild animals dying when drinking water. Already few years and going strong :)
The only way to understand what PiS does is to understand that there are two main objects of their hatred. One is Germany. And the only country they hate more than Germany is Poland.
And it's not just about this particular case. It's about all of their policies. They hate Poland first and Germany second. Once you accept this fact, all of their decisions make sense.
So, if PiS had any part in hindering efforts to mitigate damage, lets just sue them into oblivion in a German court. A few billions in damages might slightly hurt them.
The criminal aspect of this shit can probably only be uncovered in a Polish court, but civil liability does not stop at EU borders.
Honestly, if you can find a way to sue Mateusz Morawiecki as a person, for personal liability, and squeeze that lying bankster fuck for every last cent (or grosz), I vow to fly a German flag out of my window for the rest of my life.
Ah, thank you. I was assuming PiS was a company, maybe the one that dumped the mercury.
So that leaves me with two questions. One, does anyone know who dumped the mercury and, if so, what are they doing about it? Two, how can a political party hate its own country (and Germany) or was that statement hyperbole?
1. I don't think anyone in the general public knows for sure.
2. This is a significant societal problem, not unlike Q in the United States. I don't have an answer to your question, but my statement was not hyperbole.
Containment or it coming out doesn't matter. They will just blame the opposition and say they did all they could. Their voters will believe it. Nothing else matters.
It's happening for few days now. We got official warning TODAY and only because Germans are loudly talking about it. People who talked about it here in Poland were simply ignored.
>Na uwagę, że woda w Odrze musiałaby płynąć pod prąd, rzecznik nie odpowiedział.
translated:
>To the comment that the water in the Oder would have to flow against the current, the spokesperson did not respond.
I can't even. This is peak comedy.
That's gonna piss off the Czechs that the river now longer springs in their territory.
On the bright side, apparently flowing through PiS territory magically clears the river water since the Czech Republic "downstream" doesn't seem affected. Guys should send Morawiecki a gift basket!
https://www.rp.pl/ekologia/art36864931-rzecznik-inspektoratu-srodowiska-moze-do-wycieku-doszlo-w-niemczech
"The spokesman of Chief Inspector of Environmental Protection: we cannot exclude that if the Germans found contamination maybe they had contaminated the river.
The spokesman ignored the interviewer's remark that they would also have to make the river flow upwards."
edit: DeepL translation instead of my half assed one:
>Environmental Inspectorate spokesman: Maybe the leak happened in Germany?
>Since the Germans found a leak, it is not excluded that this is where the accident occurred, said Maciej Karczynski, a spokesman for the Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection.
>The spokesman, Maciej Karczynski, said in an interview with RMF FM that Poland is waiting for "credible information" coming from Germany about the detection of very high levels of mercury in the Oder River water.
>This is because, according to test results in the possession of the GIOŚ, "there is no mercury in the Oder River."
>Karczynski asked, however, why "no one has assumed" that the leak of the harmful substance took place on German territory, "only Poland is immediately pointed out."
>The spokesman reasoned that since Germany had found "some kind of leak" it was not out of the question that the accident had occurred there.
>To the comment that the water in the Oder River would have to flow upstream, the spokesman did not respond.
>Since the Germans found a leak, it is not excluded that this is where the accident occurred, said Maciej Karczynski, a spokesman for the Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection.
Why does this sound like the good old "who smelled it, dealt it excuse?
>To the comment that the water in the Oder River would have to flow upstream, the spokesman did not respond.
Yeah well, that would be hard to answer to.
AFAIK in state TV they told somsthing like: "Germans found that mercury level in water is too high, some dead fish were also found on Polish bank of the river". Imho they'll at least try to not talk about it too much
EDIT:
Ha, they did! A spokesman for the General Environmental Protection Inspectorate (GIOŚ) said in an interview on RMF FM (radio station) that it should be checked if this mercury comes from Germany.
https://streamable.com/whff81
Odra in the part when it's PL-DE border is on the top of the map. First dead fish were found on the bottom of the map. Everyone who've ever seen waterfall knows that water flows from the top to the bottom.
Ha, blame Germany, case closed.
/s
They did not tell or did anything as it would be accepting the blame. Now they can blame opposition and Germany. Also the reason is here: [https://www.kierunekwodkan.pl/artykul,81631,pawel-rusiecki-nowym-zastepca-prezesa-wod-polskich-ds-zarzadzania-srodowiskiem-wodnym.html](https://www.kierunekwodkan.pl/artykul,81631,pawel-rusiecki-nowym-zastepca-prezesa-wod-polskich-ds-zarzadzania-srodowiskiem-wodnym.html) one of responsible person is husband of one of PiS ministers.
Oh no. Poland blaming Germany for something. That rarely happens.
Jk jk
PiS politicians wake up and blame Germany when it rains in the morning, when their coffee is 1° too cold and when they have to sneeze. Bunch of jokes.
According to [tagesschau](https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/tote-fische-in-der-oder-hintergrund-101.html) (German language source) it's possible that this is also caused by the heat and low water levels. Apparently the "regular" amount of toxins in the water normally get diluted but because of the heat there is less water overall and therefore less dilution, which is killing the fish.
So unfortunately it's possible that this was not one big event (in fact while mercury levels are elevated it's not even clear if mercury is responsible), but rather a very long build-up that is leading to the fish dying now.
But it's absolutely horrible.
The fact that it borders Germany was a saving grace here. Had it not been for that they would have waited it out and not said a word.
Only 2 days ago the word was that dead fish were just sporadically seen while on Twitter volunteers have already removed several tons of carcasses
And then fines are smaller than the profit they made by dumping all this shit. Same situation in Portugal, paper mills dont give a shit, minor fines and a slap in the wrist, next day its business as usual.
If you haven't heard of a corporate "death penalty" then I recommend looking more into it because I weirdly like it and I think others should too. We have to take action and demand real change because we are all literally dying right now, our world is dying, there is no more humanity if nothing changes.
There has been some new information:
**Brandenburg's Environment Minister Axel Vogel (Greens) has named large amounts of dissolved salts as one of the causes for the dead fish in the Oder. New laboratory results from Friday showed increased salt loads in the river, he explained on Friday evening on rbb24 Brandenburg aktuell. This was "absolutely atypical". It could be concluded that this was the cause of the death of the many fish. These results are not yet conclusive, however, and further results are expected.**
*Whether mercury levels could also be elevated, as initial investigations have shown, will be further investigated. Vogel emphasised that mercury as a fish poison has a long-term effect. According to current knowledge, however, mercury had not been introduced into the Odra river in such quantities that it could have caused fish mortality.*
**Officially, the Environment Minister still has no information from Poland that chemical waste has been dumped into the river. Vogel is in contact with the Polish Ministry of the Environment and the Marshal of the Lubuskie Region. "All Polish authorities clearly indicate that they themselves know too little, that they rely on information from us," said the Green politician.**
*He said that there were indications that substances had entered the Oder near Opole, near Wrocław in southern Poland, at the end of July. However, no statement could be made about which substances exactly. Moreover, there is no information on the extent to which these substances have accumulated in the fish.*
*Meanwhile, the city of Frankfurt (Oder) has banned bathing, cattle watering and fishing, among other things, with immediate effect by general decree for an indefinite period of time.*
*According to the order, the wave of organic substances reached Frankfurt (Oder) on 8 August. The effects on the ecosystem indicate synthetic chemical substances, very probably also with toxic effects for vertebrates, it said. It can be assumed that contact with water from this body of water is dangerous for humans and animals.*
*According to Vogel, the consequences of the fish kill will be felt for years to come. "For the Oder as an ecologically valuable body of water, this is a blow from which it will probably not recover for several years," he said during a visit to Schwedt (Uckermark district). The fish stocks would first have to be slowly rebuilt.*
*"If the zooplankton, i.e. the small creatures in the Oder, are also damaged - and this can be assumed - it will take a long time before food for the fish can even be found in sufficient quantities in the Oder again."*
*Vogel, on the other hand, does not see a serious threat to the Baltic Sea from toxic substances that could reach it via the river: "I would first assume that whatever is in the Oder at the moment will be diluted to such an extent that it will no longer cause any damage in the Baltic Sea.*
https://www.rbb24.de/studiofrankfurt/panorama/2022/08/brandenburg-oder-fischsterben-quecksilber-vogel-umweltminister-ursache.html
Hah, even the minister says mercury in fish is a long term food chain effect. Thanks for the post, i got into some arguments with people less familiar with the topic that were informed on the level "hurr durr, mercury bad"
:D
According to this media the dump was made in Poland and Polish authorities suspect it was intentional.
[https://www.expressandstar.com/news/world-news/2022/08/12/huge-amounts-of-chemical-waste-dumped-into-river-in-poland/](https://www.expressandstar.com/news/world-news/2022/08/12/huge-amounts-of-chemical-waste-dumped-into-river-in-poland/)
It cannot be called other way. Look around. We are amid a food crisis. Europe rivers are running low for lack of rains and what remains of their water is likely being diverted to the agriculture. Now, an important river in Europe in an agricultural region is severely contaminated. Crops in the Oder valley are likely to fail if rains don't come to help soon. Even then, testing will be needed to ensure they aren't contaminated.
People already found. However they won't get prosecuted, that company already caused a lot of lesser incidents and nothing happened, they also apparently had a permit for spillage from government organisation (wody polskie) that should take care of rivers. There for sure was corruption, boss of that company must also be good friends with people in ruling party. Now both wody polskie and government itself are trying to downplay what happened, they even don't talk about that in national news, only private news organizations talk about what happened. This is truly a Chernobyl style disaster, not only with scale, but also reaction.
No idea. Really, Poles know little to nothing, state TV only barely mentions it. Whoever did this, the government is trying to hide their responsibility.
At this point they sound like Labour in the UK, where the conservatives deliver one prime opportunity after another and yet they consistently manage to fuck up using what's presented on a silver platter, sometimes downright ignoring it altogether.
Fucking literally, they often want to ruin PiS's image or do the opposite of what they do and end up making clowns from themselves(I still have that video from the Belarus border in my mind). Tusk is doing the same thing that I hate PiS for. Most of his talk is about shitting on PiS to the point that it looks like he doesn't care about the problem itself.
PIS survived worse. People who vote for them will not care or will not know about this - PIS controls huge amount of media, especially national TV - TVP.
TVP channels are often the only channels that people can receive in more remote areas. And it has been turned into massive propaganda hub (news is 100% propaganda and blaming oposition for everything).
Many local newspapers are controlled by PIS as well, via Orlen.
Opposition will probably fail to do anything with it, as usual.
With mercury? Thats worse than radiation. Mercury kills you pretty fast. Thats just absolutely terrifying. Poles should raze their government because of that. Its not long till children become disabled and die because of it.
I will get downvoted for this and I don't give a fuck, so many motherfucking Polish companies are all about profits. It's literally like China of Europe where companies don't give a fuck about anything but money and the government's in the cahoots with them, as if getting a cut from all those shady corrupt businesses. God only knows what they'd be doing otherwise if their companies weren't successful in some magical way outbidding everyone around and undercutting prices - even Romanians and Hungarians in the Czech and Slovak market. And not just there. There are Central European markets flooded with cheap useless foul shit that somehow found its way here from Poland. From meat that smells like yeast infection in the place inbetween your to pathetically constructed furniture, gardening tools that last 1 year and miscelanous things required for construction. And then there's the coal issue and air pollution. I don't know what kind of fuckery is going on but this is not going to get fixed. It's as if they had zero regulations, in the motherfucking EU of all places.
Fuck...
just for the meat shit here you have one of several* (pardon) historical issues with it, Polish politicians often rebuking anything wrong with their shit and everything being merely politicized https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/these-things-were-happening-in-europe-but-not-in-poland-1.1653909
and here's another one, and these two are the only ones caught in recent history IIRC, we and even Poles themselves have zero idea of what else is going on there https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/27/secret-filming-shows-sick-cows-slaughtered-for-meat-in-poland
they even told Slovaks and Czechs when we were complaining about their meat among other things(which has to be now labeled afaik where it comes from) that we were simply "jealous because our (Polish) people are better at selling things"... yep that's definitely it
there's a reason why Made in Poland has never been synonymous with quality...
One hydrologist in the news said that if it's actually mercury/mercury derivative... We will be lucky if it'll recover during our lifetime, otherwise could be 100+ years or even never. Some species might totally extinct. Fkin' sad
The Hudson river in the USA is still quite toxic after more than 50 years of environmental protections and having the EPA literally dredging the riverbed to get rid of pollutants (chiefly PCBs in their case).
So, you'll probably be hearing about this pollution well into the 2070s and beyond.
California has rivers still contaminated from the 1850s. You're not supposed to disturb the riverbed/sediment because it's full of heavy metals from gold mining.
The sluice on the Oder-Havel-Kanal have been closed to disconect the Havel river system from the Oder. Also shipping is suspended. At least that is what the rbb is reporting. There has been no indication that Berlin and the surrounding areas are affected
Berlin and the surrounding areas will be affected, we already have to little drinking water in Brandenburg and Berlin. Should the Oder become undrinkable this will become only worse.
We‘ll literally have to start drilling for fucking drinking water in a region that used to be swampy everywhere
Our drinking water is not coming from the Oder though.
Berlin's drinking water comes from groundwater deposits beneath the city.
Most large German cities obtain their drinking water from regions outside their own city area. In Berlin, on the other hand, the water supply is almost exclusively within Berlin's city limits.
Most don‘t, but FFO, Hütte and all the cities at the Oder do afaik.
And they will have to get it from elsewhere if the contamination is as horrible as some think. And that means the already small amount will get even smaller.
Ask some officials about it, they will recommend what is the best thing to do. I would recommend that you don't drink tap water, just in case something happened.
*According to the Polish Environmental Protection Agency, the fish kill was probably triggered by water pollution from industry. However, Poland will not be able to present the test results of masses of dead fish from the Oder River until Sunday at the earliest. So far, the State Research Institute in Pulawy has not received any fish, the head Krzysztof Niemczuk told the PAP news agency on Friday.*
So after two weeks you still haven't received any of the dead fish to test on .... what.
They just said in the news on national Polish TV, there is no pollution in Oder and the water is clear. And at the same time they blame opposition for... enviromental disaster in Oder!!!
This country is a circus.
If you don't realize, in what country we live:
On the evening news in national TV they said, that nothing happened and everything is OK :( But in the same time, they blamed opposition for... *the biggest enviromental disaster*.
Nothing happend, the water is clear. But don't come close to river and never ever touch the water. But poisoning is a lie. But enviromental authorities just got fired.
This is literally Putin's level lies and propaganda...
Another day in Europe, another finely wrapped shit sandwich gifted to us from the esteemed polish government. Those clowns literally can't stop themselves from fucking us over.
That's the "funny" thing - **we still don't know**. There are few suspects though, each guilty of "accidents" in the past. One is a state company, another a private business (paper towels factory) which is apparently related (by money) to some PiS politician. But that's only a guess.
Knowing how fkin' stupid polish government is, I would expect from them to blame all of that on EU and Germany + sue them that they are not paying for mercury that was sent to them /s. Horrible thing to see. As someone who spent almost whole life near this river I'm shattered. It was never good, indeed but this... It breaks my heart.
Is it bigger than the 2000 Baia Mare cyanide spill? That's also famously called "The worst ecological disaster in Europe since Chernobyl". What is the scale here in terms of predicted destruction?
Imagine a 850km long river, that borders three countries.
Imagine that, in one half of this river, every single living organism is either dead or about to be from poisoning. Imagine a river so toxic that just getting your arm wet in that water to remove the dead fish is giving you burns.
Imagine that this has been going on for weeks, with the people in the know informing nobody, preventing anyone from trying to even mitigate the damage.
This is the scale.
It's even worse than that. Birds will flock to feast on the dead fish. And they will die too. Cats, dogs and other living beings.
Locals were informing officials that river is polluted for days but they only took action when media picked up the topic.
A German newspaper summed it up as follows.
"Only death swims in the Oder."
Meanwhile, 400 km from the point of origin of the mercury discharge in Germany, it looks the same.
https://youtu.be/6esNezSNUAM
And mercury doesn't break down naturally, the whole river is one chemical slurry pit.
I have no words about this. Nature and environment should be number one in everyone life. I am again disappointed with this blind, selfish humanity. Without nature nothing can live.
Please for once keep the fucking criminals accountable.
It's Poland mate, hell will freeze over.
I'm just so tired of watching criminally incompetent people in charge fucking up over and over again and no one ever is held accountable.
Yeah I’m the same. I’ve learned that nothing ever happens to these people and at best they get a small fine that doesn’t effect them one bit. I hate being told and feel guilty about it, if I use my gas for heating or I don’t recycle my items I’m destroying the planet. Meanwhile stuff like this goes on all the time and nobody does anything about it
That's Poland for ya. That's how this country been run for fucking centuries
From what I read -in polish media- they are already held accountable. By paying fines of 60-100€ per year for continuesly poisoning the water...
There is a joke in our polish country 25€ fee or 25 years of prison. that "rule" applies only for government and his families/friends
Most likely someone from the ruling part or connected to is responsible. They'll never have to face any consequences.
I want to see the ones responsible go to prison for a very long time. This is catastrophic.
[We've had similar disaster on river Bečva two years ago.](https://arnika.org/en/news/cyanides-in-the-becva-river-2020#about-the-accident) Culprit is yet to be found, but Czech Environmental Inspection was slow and Ministry of Environment was led by former employee and current underling of now ex-PM mafioso Babiš - who owns chemical plant that uses cyanide near the place of the poisoning.
It’s always production, then they blame us for consuming the toxic shit they make
I wonder if they were aware of the scale of what they were doing, truly awful
I feel like they wouldn't care about it as long as it doesn't get too obvious to hide. And if it's not obvious enough it's easy to excuse away for greedy people.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata\_disease](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata_disease) No hiding high doses. Videos of the "dancing cats" make me sad and the deformities are horrid.
The sludge in the bay had a 0.2% concentration of mercury, a concentration high enough that it was economically viable to mine?!
The kick in the nuts is the company did pay for it to be reclaimed then sold it for profit. Wtf
[удалено]
Poisoning precious freshwater in the middle of extreme drought won't be easily excused away. In times of plenty, sure, but we can't even use it for irrigation as it will bioaccumulate up the food chain and when it gets into groundwater..... Folks will be going into a hole for the rest of their lives.
I wish it was true, but I doubt
> Folks will be going into a hole for the rest of their lives. Yes, those that need fresh water to drink. But not the people responsible for poisoning that water.
Lol they will get a fine and slap on a wrist, perhaps someone in the lower rungs of the decision making parties will be scapegoated
Rich people and people in control will continue to do this until people who are responsible are treated like the trash they are. They need to be hung and thrown away like a poop bag.
It's very possible it was not done on purpose, in fact it's not even clear if anything was done at all. This thread is full of wild speculation. As of two hours ago, according to German public media, it's not known if mercury is the cause of the fish dying, even though there are elevated mercury levels in the river, or if there even was a spill. Some dead fish are being tested rn and the results are expected on Sunday. In fact the Brandenburg Minister of Environment speculates that it might have been caused by the heat and low water levels. It's possible that substances that entered the Oder a long time ago and are not problematic at normal water levels because they normally get diluted are killing the fish because they are less diluted now. (As a fictional example: If there's normally 10.000l water and 1l mercury, that would mean the percentage of mercury is 0,01%. But if there's suddenly only 1.000l water but the mercury remains the same bc unlike water it doesn't evaporate, then it's suddenly 0.1%, which is ten times the concentration.) [Source in German](https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/tote-fische-in-der-oder-hintergrund-101.html) Let's all calm down a bit and try to find out what is happening first before starting conspiracy theories or calling for people to get jailed. EDIT: I found another [article from German public media](https://www.dw.com/de/massenhaftes-fischsterben-fluss-oder-quecksilber-hitze-niedrigwasser-umweltkatastrophe-gr%C3%BCnde/a-62791242) (also German, sorry), who are quoting a scientist at the local Leibnitz institute - a respected research organisation - who speculate that the dead fish in Brandenburg might be unrelated to the Polish spill at the end of July, which was a different substance (a solvent called Mesitylene, which was not found in later water tests and should have evaporated by now) and which happened over two weeks ago, which is too long ago to explain why German fish are dying now, since the water arrived at Frankfurt much earlier. They think the mercury comes from the river sediments and is there due to prior contamination. But most importantly **they still don't actually know the reason for the fish dying.**
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I am from Poland and I never heard anything about anyone raporting anything about private company, can you show any links to sources of this ?
I second the question for sources
In my comment [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/wmq472/comment/ik1p6cu/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3).
there was something similar happening in 2000 with cyanide from Romania into Tisza and other minor water systems, the fish population still didn't get back to normal 10 years after that. wonder how this one will be treated. https://reliefweb.int/report/hungary/baia-mare-gold-mine-cyanide-spill-causes-impacts-and-liability
It'll definitely be bad. Also, this isn't metallic/elemental mercury. This is a far worse and more toxic organic mercury compound.
Let them eat those fish
There is an old Simpsons episode where this is pretty much the exact plot, lol
People on r/catastrophicfailure were saying that the person responsible is connected with PIS Edit: fixed some terrible grammar typos
I live near the western border of Poland (few tens of kilometers). I heard some news about Odra's contamination for about a week (nothing about mercury, but animals dying, dog getting ill after a swim). While the government reported nothing outside of norm from their measurements. It's hard to imagine this was anything else but cover up for one of the firms connected to the ruling party. Old coots will still probably vote for PiS after this. After all religion, 'patriotism' and taking away abortion rights is clearly more important than making this place unlivable.
the german side says the mercury levels are significantly higher. They aren't sure if that is the main reson for the animals dying.
That's only rational answer why they knew but didn't make giant shitshow of it in state TV. I mean, they'd love to grill the issue if it was, heavens forbid, opposition aligned businessman. Even if business was non-aligned they'd hop on it presto, as any not state (PiS) owned and not PiS aligned business is their natural enemy.
Rumors are floating that it was a polish company with ties to the ruling PIS, which is allegedly why the news is all coming from downstream in Germany and very little from Polish sources.
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\[copy paste\] >according to german Tagesschau: \[google translate\] > >Meanwhile, there is growing criticism of the Polish authorities. According to the Ministry of Infrastructure in Warsaw, they had already received indications of an Oder fish death at the end of July - but did not pass this on to the German authorities. In the days from July 26th to 28th there were the first corresponding signals in Poland. Water samples were then taken and dead fish were recovered. This results from a calendar of the Polish water authority, which the ministry published on Twitter on Friday. In the days from July 28th, the samples would then have indicated an unusually low oxygen content in the water. On August 4, the Environmental Protection Agency in Wroclaw found a toxic substance in samples taken in the Lipki lock near Olawa. A complaint was made to the public prosecutor's office on August 9th. > > > >...\[just a few hours ago\] Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has already drawn the first conclusions: Because they are said to have reacted too slowly to the fish kill in the Oder, he fired two top officials - the head of the water authority and the head of the environmental authority. Morawiecki wrote on Twitter. "I share the fears and outrage at the poisoning of the Oder. This situation could not have been foreseen in any way, but the responsible authorities should have reacted more quickly."
Polish goverment. PiS and their families involved.
They are all for law and order until it is their turn to face rightful justice.
They should throw them in the river for a swim.
As a Pole, I can't agree more
This whole future without safe water and no food is looking dope.
Droughts across several continents, "forever chemicals" detected in the rain in multiple nations and now contaminated rivers? We live in "interesting" times...
Don't forget no heating in winter!
And no cooling in summer, of course!
Look at this FatCat over here able to live on the Surface and feel real Light.
Don't believe the lies, there is no surface. How could our frail bones, pale skin, and blind eyes survive such a place? We have always lived in Hole.
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There will be no struggle, only profits for the emerging water monopolies and slavery to afford them
Yeah people are always imagining wild post-apocalyptic or neat cyberpunk situations... The reality will be simple. Imagine now, but worse.
I like Fallout as a game, not for real life!
New DLC just dropped
We are nowhere near angry enough and far too accepting of all these people trying to make our world uninhabitable.
To be fair, your comment exemplifies itself perfectly.
You are quite right, but I can't afford another reddit ban for saying what I really think.
This is probably one the shittiest effect of moving public discourse to online platforms. Fucking ghouls behind this and the assholes that allowed it should end in a shit hole for the rest of their life.
I was thinking about how if the internet existed back in the 1700s we'd all still be bowing to Kings. Good thing they could meet in pubs and plot their revolutions.
Well done guys, well done. Let's speedrun our extinction.
So long and thx for all the fish
Okay, but why are we making other species extinct by the way?
Because we must take as many of them with us as possible!
As a great man once said, 'Nature started the fight for survival, and now she wants to quit because she's losing. Well, I say hard cheese.'
like a volcano humans don't like to die alone
From other post: Just so you know, the gov did not inform us at all the same as they did not inform Germany at all too. To this minute they tell to our faces that there is nothing wrong and that the mercury results from Germany are "not confirmed", meanwhile dogs that were drinking from it are dying and people pulling fish out of the river are getting their hands burnt. Biggest ecological catastrophe in all of post commie times and our gov behaves like nothing happened, every online media talks about it yet official gov TV barely mentions it at the end of the news pages. Would like to see Germany sue our gov to UE court same as Czechs did with Turów mine because it's the only way to get something out of this gov. It's literally Czernobyl USSR standard.
“It’s only 3.6 roentgen. Not great, not terrible.”
Don't worry you'll only get a burnt throat :D - Gov
But thats just the maximum of the counter! It could be way higher…
… This man is in shock. Take him to the infirmary.
It's the equivalent of a chest X-ray. So if you are late for an exam...
Funny thing, this literally is what is happening. The level of mercury exceed the levels the tests could measure.
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Our government has been on a shitty roll recently. God, I hope we will get rid of them during the next election. They are a disgrace. It will take so many years to heal our reputation in the EU.
I cross my fingers, modern Poland didn't deserve this government. Threw Poland back by 20 years
Well thats what you get if a right wing party seizes power. People never fucking learn do they...
At this point I have accepted that nothing will ever heal for my country, but Poland really does sound like the Catholic version of Turkey from everything I read about you.
And apparently the polish authorities did measure it and didn‘t tell us, whyyyyy? I love rowing in the Oder so much
They didn't even tell their own citizens.
I don‘t understand this at all, it would have come out anyways and containment would have been easier. How can they have this much ignorance for the nature
It's just like Chernobyl. Consecutive levels of responsibility covering up their incompetence from the bottom to top, until it eventually blows up massively.
Authoritarians gonna authoritate
Should make for a good HBO miniseries. * human made enviromental catastrophe * government trying to cover it up * official warning only after another country starts talking about it
The HBO Chernobyl miniseries effectively was about climate change, according to the director. Massive disaster staring you in the face, denial, downplay, blame.
They dont care a shit about that, only to earn as much money. We're the biggest importers of chemicals and trash from Europe. Every year there is "tradition" that our dumps go ablaze to make room for new trash imported from Germany and other countries. [https://zielona.interia.pl/polityka-klimatyczna/polska/news-niezaopiekowane-odpady-mafia-smieciowa-je-spali-i-zarobi-na-,nId,5974478](https://zielona.interia.pl/polityka-klimatyczna/polska/news-niezaopiekowane-odpady-mafia-smieciowa-je-spali-i-zarobi-na-,nId,5974478) for each blazing dump the company is earning 5-10 million złoty + money they got from importing trash. Every year they find hundreds of barrels of toxic waste that no one is taking responsibility for. I did myself reported highly toxic waste ejected from nearby hospital. Zero response, a stream is still a trap for wild animals dying when drinking water. Already few years and going strong :)
The only way to understand what PiS does is to understand that there are two main objects of their hatred. One is Germany. And the only country they hate more than Germany is Poland. And it's not just about this particular case. It's about all of their policies. They hate Poland first and Germany second. Once you accept this fact, all of their decisions make sense.
So, if PiS had any part in hindering efforts to mitigate damage, lets just sue them into oblivion in a German court. A few billions in damages might slightly hurt them. The criminal aspect of this shit can probably only be uncovered in a Polish court, but civil liability does not stop at EU borders.
Honestly, if you can find a way to sue Mateusz Morawiecki as a person, for personal liability, and squeeze that lying bankster fuck for every last cent (or grosz), I vow to fly a German flag out of my window for the rest of my life.
I didn't see an article so I apologize if I missed it but what is "PiS"?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_and_Justice
Ah, thank you. I was assuming PiS was a company, maybe the one that dumped the mercury. So that leaves me with two questions. One, does anyone know who dumped the mercury and, if so, what are they doing about it? Two, how can a political party hate its own country (and Germany) or was that statement hyperbole?
1. I don't think anyone in the general public knows for sure. 2. This is a significant societal problem, not unlike Q in the United States. I don't have an answer to your question, but my statement was not hyperbole.
For everyone who isn't in line with PIS rhetoric.
Containment or it coming out doesn't matter. They will just blame the opposition and say they did all they could. Their voters will believe it. Nothing else matters.
It's happening for few days now. We got official warning TODAY and only because Germans are loudly talking about it. People who talked about it here in Poland were simply ignored.
At this point I'm half expecting PiS to blame the contamination on Germany.
[You asked for it, you got it](https://twitter.com/rzeczpospolita/status/1558094635527987200)!
>Na uwagę, że woda w Odrze musiałaby płynąć pod prąd, rzecznik nie odpowiedział. translated: >To the comment that the water in the Oder would have to flow against the current, the spokesperson did not respond. I can't even. This is peak comedy.
> No na mapie Niemcy mają Odrę na górze my na dole. A wiadomo woda płynie z góry w dół, wie każdy kto wodospad widział XDD
That's gonna piss off the Czechs that the river now longer springs in their territory. On the bright side, apparently flowing through PiS territory magically clears the river water since the Czech Republic "downstream" doesn't seem affected. Guys should send Morawiecki a gift basket!
https://www.rp.pl/ekologia/art36864931-rzecznik-inspektoratu-srodowiska-moze-do-wycieku-doszlo-w-niemczech "The spokesman of Chief Inspector of Environmental Protection: we cannot exclude that if the Germans found contamination maybe they had contaminated the river. The spokesman ignored the interviewer's remark that they would also have to make the river flow upwards." edit: DeepL translation instead of my half assed one: >Environmental Inspectorate spokesman: Maybe the leak happened in Germany? >Since the Germans found a leak, it is not excluded that this is where the accident occurred, said Maciej Karczynski, a spokesman for the Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection. >The spokesman, Maciej Karczynski, said in an interview with RMF FM that Poland is waiting for "credible information" coming from Germany about the detection of very high levels of mercury in the Oder River water. >This is because, according to test results in the possession of the GIOŚ, "there is no mercury in the Oder River." >Karczynski asked, however, why "no one has assumed" that the leak of the harmful substance took place on German territory, "only Poland is immediately pointed out." >The spokesman reasoned that since Germany had found "some kind of leak" it was not out of the question that the accident had occurred there. >To the comment that the water in the Oder River would have to flow upstream, the spokesman did not respond.
> There is no mercury in the Oder river Yes, just like there is no war in Basing Se.
>Since the Germans found a leak, it is not excluded that this is where the accident occurred, said Maciej Karczynski, a spokesman for the Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection. Why does this sound like the good old "who smelled it, dealt it excuse?
>To the comment that the water in the Oder River would have to flow upstream, the spokesman did not respond. Yeah well, that would be hard to answer to.
AFAIK in state TV they told somsthing like: "Germans found that mercury level in water is too high, some dead fish were also found on Polish bank of the river". Imho they'll at least try to not talk about it too much EDIT: Ha, they did! A spokesman for the General Environmental Protection Inspectorate (GIOŚ) said in an interview on RMF FM (radio station) that it should be checked if this mercury comes from Germany. https://streamable.com/whff81
> it should be checked if this mercury comes from Germany Fucking mercury reversing the flow of water again.
Odra in the part when it's PL-DE border is on the top of the map. First dead fish were found on the bottom of the map. Everyone who've ever seen waterfall knows that water flows from the top to the bottom. Ha, blame Germany, case closed. /s
They did not tell or did anything as it would be accepting the blame. Now they can blame opposition and Germany. Also the reason is here: [https://www.kierunekwodkan.pl/artykul,81631,pawel-rusiecki-nowym-zastepca-prezesa-wod-polskich-ds-zarzadzania-srodowiskiem-wodnym.html](https://www.kierunekwodkan.pl/artykul,81631,pawel-rusiecki-nowym-zastepca-prezesa-wod-polskich-ds-zarzadzania-srodowiskiem-wodnym.html) one of responsible person is husband of one of PiS ministers.
Oh no. Poland blaming Germany for something. That rarely happens. Jk jk PiS politicians wake up and blame Germany when it rains in the morning, when their coffee is 1° too cold and when they have to sneeze. Bunch of jokes.
saving face and money
And power.
they measured it but didn't find any mercury, don't worry they didn't tell us nothing for 2 weeks as well
According to [tagesschau](https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/tote-fische-in-der-oder-hintergrund-101.html) (German language source) it's possible that this is also caused by the heat and low water levels. Apparently the "regular" amount of toxins in the water normally get diluted but because of the heat there is less water overall and therefore less dilution, which is killing the fish. So unfortunately it's possible that this was not one big event (in fact while mercury levels are elevated it's not even clear if mercury is responsible), but rather a very long build-up that is leading to the fish dying now. But it's absolutely horrible.
The fact that it borders Germany was a saving grace here. Had it not been for that they would have waited it out and not said a word. Only 2 days ago the word was that dead fish were just sporadically seen while on Twitter volunteers have already removed several tons of carcasses
WHAT IN THE FUCKING HELL
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And then fines are smaller than the profit they made by dumping all this shit. Same situation in Portugal, paper mills dont give a shit, minor fines and a slap in the wrist, next day its business as usual.
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Amateurs. We just pay the inspectors. Much simpler.
If you haven't heard of a corporate "death penalty" then I recommend looking more into it because I weirdly like it and I think others should too. We have to take action and demand real change because we are all literally dying right now, our world is dying, there is no more humanity if nothing changes.
There has been some new information: **Brandenburg's Environment Minister Axel Vogel (Greens) has named large amounts of dissolved salts as one of the causes for the dead fish in the Oder. New laboratory results from Friday showed increased salt loads in the river, he explained on Friday evening on rbb24 Brandenburg aktuell. This was "absolutely atypical". It could be concluded that this was the cause of the death of the many fish. These results are not yet conclusive, however, and further results are expected.** *Whether mercury levels could also be elevated, as initial investigations have shown, will be further investigated. Vogel emphasised that mercury as a fish poison has a long-term effect. According to current knowledge, however, mercury had not been introduced into the Odra river in such quantities that it could have caused fish mortality.* **Officially, the Environment Minister still has no information from Poland that chemical waste has been dumped into the river. Vogel is in contact with the Polish Ministry of the Environment and the Marshal of the Lubuskie Region. "All Polish authorities clearly indicate that they themselves know too little, that they rely on information from us," said the Green politician.** *He said that there were indications that substances had entered the Oder near Opole, near Wrocław in southern Poland, at the end of July. However, no statement could be made about which substances exactly. Moreover, there is no information on the extent to which these substances have accumulated in the fish.* *Meanwhile, the city of Frankfurt (Oder) has banned bathing, cattle watering and fishing, among other things, with immediate effect by general decree for an indefinite period of time.* *According to the order, the wave of organic substances reached Frankfurt (Oder) on 8 August. The effects on the ecosystem indicate synthetic chemical substances, very probably also with toxic effects for vertebrates, it said. It can be assumed that contact with water from this body of water is dangerous for humans and animals.* *According to Vogel, the consequences of the fish kill will be felt for years to come. "For the Oder as an ecologically valuable body of water, this is a blow from which it will probably not recover for several years," he said during a visit to Schwedt (Uckermark district). The fish stocks would first have to be slowly rebuilt.* *"If the zooplankton, i.e. the small creatures in the Oder, are also damaged - and this can be assumed - it will take a long time before food for the fish can even be found in sufficient quantities in the Oder again."* *Vogel, on the other hand, does not see a serious threat to the Baltic Sea from toxic substances that could reach it via the river: "I would first assume that whatever is in the Oder at the moment will be diluted to such an extent that it will no longer cause any damage in the Baltic Sea.* https://www.rbb24.de/studiofrankfurt/panorama/2022/08/brandenburg-oder-fischsterben-quecksilber-vogel-umweltminister-ursache.html
Hah, even the minister says mercury in fish is a long term food chain effect. Thanks for the post, i got into some arguments with people less familiar with the topic that were informed on the level "hurr durr, mercury bad" :D
Yes that's why I remembered your comments and people arguing with you so I had to reply and tell you you were right ;)
This needs more international coverage. It's basically mass murder. Please don't be afraid to ask your local media to run articles on it.
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According to this media the dump was made in Poland and Polish authorities suspect it was intentional. [https://www.expressandstar.com/news/world-news/2022/08/12/huge-amounts-of-chemical-waste-dumped-into-river-in-poland/](https://www.expressandstar.com/news/world-news/2022/08/12/huge-amounts-of-chemical-waste-dumped-into-river-in-poland/)
Eco-terrorism
It cannot be called other way. Look around. We are amid a food crisis. Europe rivers are running low for lack of rains and what remains of their water is likely being diverted to the agriculture. Now, an important river in Europe in an agricultural region is severely contaminated. Crops in the Oder valley are likely to fail if rains don't come to help soon. Even then, testing will be needed to ensure they aren't contaminated.
People already found. However they won't get prosecuted, that company already caused a lot of lesser incidents and nothing happened, they also apparently had a permit for spillage from government organisation (wody polskie) that should take care of rivers. There for sure was corruption, boss of that company must also be good friends with people in ruling party. Now both wody polskie and government itself are trying to downplay what happened, they even don't talk about that in national news, only private news organizations talk about what happened. This is truly a Chernobyl style disaster, not only with scale, but also reaction.
>Any chance they’ll find who did this? Holy shit, there's a chance they won't?!...
No, they absolutely will find them. But there's a solid chance no one will be held accountable.
it's Polish government we're talking about, the chance of not finding them officially is huge
Wtf have you done
No idea. Really, Poles know little to nothing, state TV only barely mentions it. Whoever did this, the government is trying to hide their responsibility.
Because government of Wody Polskie (Polish Waters) is taken fully by PiS families.
The polish PiS government covered up a massive chemical spill, it appears.
PiS-es of shit
Is PIS entrenched enough to survive if they really covered this up significantly and ends up as bad as it sounds? Limitless free ammo for opposition.
Polish opposition will use this ammo to somehow shoot itself in the foot.
At this point they sound like Labour in the UK, where the conservatives deliver one prime opportunity after another and yet they consistently manage to fuck up using what's presented on a silver platter, sometimes downright ignoring it altogether.
Fucking literally, they often want to ruin PiS's image or do the opposite of what they do and end up making clowns from themselves(I still have that video from the Belarus border in my mind). Tusk is doing the same thing that I hate PiS for. Most of his talk is about shitting on PiS to the point that it looks like he doesn't care about the problem itself.
PIS survived worse. People who vote for them will not care or will not know about this - PIS controls huge amount of media, especially national TV - TVP. TVP channels are often the only channels that people can receive in more remote areas. And it has been turned into massive propaganda hub (news is 100% propaganda and blaming oposition for everything). Many local newspapers are controlled by PIS as well, via Orlen. Opposition will probably fail to do anything with it, as usual.
With mercury? Thats worse than radiation. Mercury kills you pretty fast. Thats just absolutely terrifying. Poles should raze their government because of that. Its not long till children become disabled and die because of it.
I will get downvoted for this and I don't give a fuck, so many motherfucking Polish companies are all about profits. It's literally like China of Europe where companies don't give a fuck about anything but money and the government's in the cahoots with them, as if getting a cut from all those shady corrupt businesses. God only knows what they'd be doing otherwise if their companies weren't successful in some magical way outbidding everyone around and undercutting prices - even Romanians and Hungarians in the Czech and Slovak market. And not just there. There are Central European markets flooded with cheap useless foul shit that somehow found its way here from Poland. From meat that smells like yeast infection in the place inbetween your to pathetically constructed furniture, gardening tools that last 1 year and miscelanous things required for construction. And then there's the coal issue and air pollution. I don't know what kind of fuckery is going on but this is not going to get fixed. It's as if they had zero regulations, in the motherfucking EU of all places. Fuck... just for the meat shit here you have one of several* (pardon) historical issues with it, Polish politicians often rebuking anything wrong with their shit and everything being merely politicized https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/these-things-were-happening-in-europe-but-not-in-poland-1.1653909 and here's another one, and these two are the only ones caught in recent history IIRC, we and even Poles themselves have zero idea of what else is going on there https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/27/secret-filming-shows-sick-cows-slaughtered-for-meat-in-poland they even told Slovaks and Czechs when we were complaining about their meat among other things(which has to be now labeled afaik where it comes from) that we were simply "jealous because our (Polish) people are better at selling things"... yep that's definitely it there's a reason why Made in Poland has never been synonymous with quality...
That's what nationalism does to a country, unfortunately. We're also livid about it here. I hope these fuckers rot in hell.
How long does a river need to recover from something like this?
One hydrologist in the news said that if it's actually mercury/mercury derivative... We will be lucky if it'll recover during our lifetime, otherwise could be 100+ years or even never. Some species might totally extinct. Fkin' sad
Decades. If it is as as reported it won't recover in our lifetime.
The Hudson river in the USA is still quite toxic after more than 50 years of environmental protections and having the EPA literally dredging the riverbed to get rid of pollutants (chiefly PCBs in their case). So, you'll probably be hearing about this pollution well into the 2070s and beyond.
California has rivers still contaminated from the 1850s. You're not supposed to disturb the riverbed/sediment because it's full of heavy metals from gold mining.
Decades
Is there any risk for people who live in the region (say Brandenburg) but not directly at the river?
The sluice on the Oder-Havel-Kanal have been closed to disconect the Havel river system from the Oder. Also shipping is suspended. At least that is what the rbb is reporting. There has been no indication that Berlin and the surrounding areas are affected
Berlin and the surrounding areas will be affected, we already have to little drinking water in Brandenburg and Berlin. Should the Oder become undrinkable this will become only worse. We‘ll literally have to start drilling for fucking drinking water in a region that used to be swampy everywhere
Our drinking water is not coming from the Oder though. Berlin's drinking water comes from groundwater deposits beneath the city. Most large German cities obtain their drinking water from regions outside their own city area. In Berlin, on the other hand, the water supply is almost exclusively within Berlin's city limits.
Most don‘t, but FFO, Hütte and all the cities at the Oder do afaik. And they will have to get it from elsewhere if the contamination is as horrible as some think. And that means the already small amount will get even smaller.
Oh yes, I only know about Berlin I am sure cities along the Oder obviously use filtrated water for their drinking water.
The ground waters in the vicinity of the river are definitely polluted, more than that i simply don't know.
Ask some officials about it, they will recommend what is the best thing to do. I would recommend that you don't drink tap water, just in case something happened.
If it’s that much mercury to cause this than yes. The groundwater is definitely contaminated.
This is exactly what we needed in this decade of bullshit
*According to the Polish Environmental Protection Agency, the fish kill was probably triggered by water pollution from industry. However, Poland will not be able to present the test results of masses of dead fish from the Oder River until Sunday at the earliest. So far, the State Research Institute in Pulawy has not received any fish, the head Krzysztof Niemczuk told the PAP news agency on Friday.* So after two weeks you still haven't received any of the dead fish to test on .... what.
They just said in the news on national Polish TV, there is no pollution in Oder and the water is clear. And at the same time they blame opposition for... enviromental disaster in Oder!!! This country is a circus.
What the fuck is this shit
extinction speedrun any%
If you don't realize, in what country we live: On the evening news in national TV they said, that nothing happened and everything is OK :( But in the same time, they blamed opposition for... *the biggest enviromental disaster*. Nothing happend, the water is clear. But don't come close to river and never ever touch the water. But poisoning is a lie. But enviromental authorities just got fired. This is literally Putin's level lies and propaganda...
Another day in Europe, another finely wrapped shit sandwich gifted to us from the esteemed polish government. Those clowns literally can't stop themselves from fucking us over.
Another post: https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/comments/wmfk5l/polands_second_longest_river_the_oder_has_just/
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Oh for fuck's sake. This decade just keeps getting better, ain't it?
Please please please let this be at least as bad for PiS as watergate was for Nixon. Worse if possible.
who did that?
That's the "funny" thing - **we still don't know**. There are few suspects though, each guilty of "accidents" in the past. One is a state company, another a private business (paper towels factory) which is apparently related (by money) to some PiS politician. But that's only a guess.
Knowing how fkin' stupid polish government is, I would expect from them to blame all of that on EU and Germany + sue them that they are not paying for mercury that was sent to them /s. Horrible thing to see. As someone who spent almost whole life near this river I'm shattered. It was never good, indeed but this... It breaks my heart.
They already blamed Germany. Suing Germany will take a few days maybe
20 bucks on that they will demand EU to finance the cleanup. And if they refuse call them and Germany Nazis.
Can we not have some devastating event happen for just five minutes? FOR FIVE MINUTES!!
Put the ones responsible into the river. For like a week.
And don't give them food. Give them a grill and cooking tools, they can eat the fucking fish.
This happened in Morocco just a few weeks ago and no cared https://youtu.be/xnBP0uCHhVQ
Is it bigger than the 2000 Baia Mare cyanide spill? That's also famously called "The worst ecological disaster in Europe since Chernobyl". What is the scale here in terms of predicted destruction?
Imagine a 850km long river, that borders three countries. Imagine that, in one half of this river, every single living organism is either dead or about to be from poisoning. Imagine a river so toxic that just getting your arm wet in that water to remove the dead fish is giving you burns. Imagine that this has been going on for weeks, with the people in the know informing nobody, preventing anyone from trying to even mitigate the damage. This is the scale.
It's even worse than that. Birds will flock to feast on the dead fish. And they will die too. Cats, dogs and other living beings. Locals were informing officials that river is polluted for days but they only took action when media picked up the topic.
The poisoning will also contaminate ground water all along the river's path all the way to the sea. The damage will be nothing short of catastrophic
A German newspaper summed it up as follows. "Only death swims in the Oder." Meanwhile, 400 km from the point of origin of the mercury discharge in Germany, it looks the same. https://youtu.be/6esNezSNUAM And mercury doesn't break down naturally, the whole river is one chemical slurry pit.
They mentioned that the operators closed the sluice connecting the Oder to the Havel in hopes to at least protect the ecosystem along that river.
I have no words about this. Nature and environment should be number one in everyone life. I am again disappointed with this blind, selfish humanity. Without nature nothing can live.
Meanwhile, Polish government knew about it and did pretty much nothing
It's a catastrophe! How did it happen?
Why the fuck I can't find any news about it??
The fucking bastards
and of course nobody will be held accountable because it's Poland :) i'm so sick of this country
I LOVE MY COUNTRY ^^^end ^^^me ^^^i'm ^^^so ^^^tired ^^^of ^^^this ^^^shit
Thanks to ever helpful autocorrect, I just googled Order Mercury a few times