DULUTH, Minn. — More than 1,000 fish were found dead in a Duluth creek in July after the city released more than a million gallons of disinfected water into it, pollution officials said.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is investigating the massive fish kill, which occurred in Tischer Creek after Duluth drained about 1.7 million gallons of chloraminated water into it.
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
The drainage does not pose a threat to humans, but “created conditions that were potentially toxic to fish and other aquatic life,” the agency said.
Pollution officials counted the dead fish and collected invertebrate samples from the creek in August.
“These samples will provide another biological indicator to determine the impact of the fish kill and the rate of recovery time,” the agency said. “Results for those tests will take several months and will inform future choices about what steps can be taken to help the creek recover.”
Chloramine is one of two primary disinfectants added to drinking water in the United States, the other being chlorine. The Centers for Disease Control said chloramine is safe to consume in small amounts. It is used as an alternative to chlorine because it “can last longer in the water pipes and produces fewer disinfection by-products,” according to the CDC.
Volos, Greece — More than 100 tons of dead fish were collected in and around the port of Volos in central Greece after a mass die-off linked to extreme weather fluctuations, authorities said Thursday. The dead freshwater fish filled the bay 200 miles north of Athens, and nearby rivers.
The die-off has hit local businesses along the seafront, reducing commercial activity by 80% in the past three days, according to Volos’ Chamber of Commerce.
Local officials say millions of dead fish have washed up on the beach and clogged the port and rivers around the city of Volos, Greece, as seen here on Aug. 27, 2024, spreading an incredible stench and alarming local authorities, residents and tourists.
Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto/Getty
Fishing trawlers have been chartered by the regional authorities, along with earthmovers, to scoop the dead fish out of the sea and load them onto trucks bound for an incinerator.
The fish came from Lake Karla in central Greece, a body of water drained in the early 1960s and restored in 2018 to combat the effects of drought.
“There are millions of dead fish all the way from Lake Karla and 20 kilometers (12 miles) eastward,” Anna Maria Papadimitriou, the deputy regional governor of the central Thessaly area, told state-run television.
A woman looks at a river with its surface covered in dead fish, in Volos, Greece, Aug. 29, 2024.
Ayhan Mehmet/Anadolu/Getty
“Right now, there is a huge effort underway to clean up the millions of dead fish that have washed along the shorelines and riverbanks… an effort that involves multiple contractors,” she said.
Water levels rose abruptly in fall 2023 during a deadly storm that caused extensive flooding in central Greece, but have since receded due to low rainfall and successive summer heat waves.
The mayor of Volos lashed out at the regional authority, accusing it of acting too slowly, while the city’s Chamber of Commerce said it was taking legal action to seek damages after the sever drop in commercial activity.
Workers operate a mobile crane to remove dead fish floating on the Xiria River, near Volos, Greece, Aug. 28, 2024.
SAKIS MITROLIDIS/AFP/Getty
“Businesses along the seafront, particularly in the catering industry, are now suspending operations,” the chamber said in a statement. “A strong stench along the seafront is repulsive to both residents and visitors … delivering a severe blow to tourism in Volos.”
Germany said Friday that mass fish deaths in the Oder River were a “man-made environmental disaster,” blaming toxic algae growth sparked by the introduction of salt into the waters.
Presenting a report into the disaster that saw at least 300 tons of dead fish pulled from the river in Germany and Poland this summer, the German environment ministry said the most likely cause was “a sudden increase in salinity.”
The “introduced salt” led to “massive proliferation of a brackish water algae that is toxic to fish,” it said.
A dead chub and other dead fish are swimming in the Oder River near Brieskow-Finkenheerd, eastern Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. Huge numbers of dead fish have washed up along the banks of the Oder River between Germany and Poland. (Frank Hammerschmidt/dpa via AP)
Frank Hammerschmidt / AP
However, “due to a lack of available information, the experts had to leave open what caused the unnaturally high salt content,” it added.
German Environment Minister Steffi Lemke said it was clear that “human activity” was to blame.
Polish authorities had on Thursday released a separate report that also blamed toxic algae for the fish deaths. More than 500 firefighters took part in the efforts to clean up the mess on the Polish side of the river this summer.
But the Polish report said the disaster had most likely been caused by poor water quality as a result of high temperatures and very low water levels over the summer.
Poland and Germany have long been at odds over the disaster.
Berlin initially accused Warsaw of failing to communicate the problem, while Poland slammed Germany for spreading “fake news” about the discovery of herbicides and pesticides in the water.
A report in Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine on Friday accused Polish authorities of failing to cooperate with their German counterparts to investigate the fish deaths.
Polish authorities became “more and more reserved, in some cases almost secretive”, Lilian Busse, the head of the investigation, was cited as saying.
The Spiegel report said Greenpeace investigations had shown high salt levels at a copper mine in the city of Glogow may have contributed to the disaster.
“It is obvious to me that the Polish government wants to cover up the causes of the fish kill in the Oder,” Ralph Lenkert, environmental policy spokesman for the far-left Die Linke party, told the magazine.
In August, Sascha Maier, a water policy officer at the BUND environmental organization, told CBS News that it was not only fish affected. Many other animals, including mussels and small vertebrates in and around the river have also suffered, Maier said.
The ecosystem was already under great stress this summer, Maier told CBS News, thanks to extreme heat and hardly any rainfall. Those conditions very likely exacerbated the problem, at least, because the lower water volume means a higher concentration of any toxic substances present.
“Because of the low water, we have a warm Oder River,” he said. That alone can cause significant physical stress for many fish species, and “if pollution is then added, they are less resistant.”
A ranger with the Brandenburg nature guard, stands with protective clothing in the German-Polish border river Westoder, near the junction with the main Oder River, and removes dead fish, August 16, 2022.
