Poland blocks investigation of mass fish death in the Oder River

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  1. Translation:

    It is still unclear who is responsible for the deaths of millions of fish in the Oder River. The sluggish investigations apparently have a reason: The Polish government is stonewalling. At least that is what the German side of the investigation commission says. The Left Party sees this as an admission of guilt.

    In the German-Polish dispute over the environmental catastrophe that led to the deaths of millions of fish in the Oder River, the fronts are hardening. For example, the Polish government blocked the work in the binational expert commission that should have determined the cause of the disaster. This was reported by “Der Spiegel.
    Neither did the Polish side share comprehensive data, nor did it show any cooperation, criticized Lilian Busse, the head of the investigative commission. “In the beginning, we actually exchanged information quite well in the German-Polish group. As things progressed, however, the Polish colleagues became more and more reserved, in some cases almost secretive,” says Busse. This conflict meant that in the end no joint report could be presented. The only word from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment in Berlin was that talks were continuing.

    Two months after the disaster, it is still unclear who is responsible. The reports of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment and the Polish government, which are available to “Der Spiegel,” show that an excessively high salt content led to the deadly spread of the algae “Prymnesium parvum”. Where and by whom the salt entered the river remains unclear.

    According to the magazine, an investigation by Greenpeace has provided clarity. According to the report, salt concentrations many times higher than permissible in freshwater were measured in the Gliwice region of Poland and at a copper mine near the city of Głogów. The report concludes that “these results indicate that the environmental disaster is largely man-made and due to the heavy pollution of the river. Here, the discharges of the mining industry are most notable.” Greenpeace activist Marta Gregorczyk told Der Spiegel, “In Poland, water quality and wastewater disposal are not consistently monitored.”

    There is anger among the opposition in the German parliament’s environment committee. “It is obvious to me that the Polish government wants to cover up what caused the fish deaths in the Oder River,” Ralph Lenkert, environmental policy spokesman for the Left Party, told the magazine. Lenkert calls it an “environmental scandal” and demands that the German government “take Poland to the European Court of Justice if necessary.”

    Criticism also comes from the Green MEP Hannah Neumann: “So far, German-Polish cooperation is not working well, the Water Framework Directive is not implemented. European subsidies are flowing into Polish projects, which are carrying out an expansion contrary to European requirements,” says Neumann.

  2. It was probably german companies using high pressure to shoot their wastewater into the river at such high speeds that it travels upstream into poland

  3. I would not be surprised, if these high discharges by the mining companies have been going on for years now. The drought this year was then to much for the river, and the result was the mass fish death.

  4. Now, why would you want to block an investigation, unless you’re guilty?

    You might get away with that bullshit in Poland, but not in the EU.

    Oh, wait… Never mind.

  5. It is all PiS. Poles overwhelmingly want this issue investigated and people responsible punished. But all leads are pointing towards people connected to PiS and therefore the mustn’t allow any accountability

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