An overflow of sludge from a factory would be at the origin of the pollution of the river. The Federation of fisheries of the Bulge brings a complaint against the company.
The pollution of the Aisne had resulted in the death of thousands of fish. Accordingly, the president of the Federation of fisheries of the Bulge announced that it had filed a complaint Wednesday, August 12, against Nestle. Detected in the night from Sunday to Monday at the height of Challerange, 50 kilometers from Reims, the pollution of the river “has resulted in very high mortality of fish due to the decrease of the oxygen content in the water,” said the prefecture of the Ardennes in a press release.
“We just have a complaint against Nestlé France for pollution and violation of section 432.2 of the Code of the Environment,” said Michel Adam, president of the Federation of fishing in the Ardennes, which estimated that the damage amounted to “several thousand euros”.
Nearly three tonnes of dead fish
“Everything is dead on a stretch of 7 km and 30 metres wide”, he lamented. “We have already recovered three tonnes of dead fish. But there are still those, 14 species have been affected, including protected species such as the eel and the lamprey”. “It has been 40 years that I have been to the federation, I have never seen a pollution of this magnitude…”
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The Nestlé factory in Challerange, which manufactures milk powder, confirmed an “infinity-in-time and involuntary effluent of waste biological sludge, without the presence of chemicals from its sewage treatment plant Sunday night.
“as Soon as knowledge of the alert on Sunday at 23 hours, we immediately stopped the production and put an end to the spill”, said in a statement its director, Tony do Rio. “This spill was one-time a duration of less than three hours on Sunday evening,” he added, specifying that the activity of the plant had been “shut down for a few days”.
A dam to contain the pollution
Since Tuesday, fishermen, volunteers and firefighters “proceed to the removal of fish and their disposal”, said the prefecture and “a dam has been installed to contain the spread of pollution”. “On the last two days, more than two tons of fish have been removed. This work will continue” on Thursday.
“However, no mortality of fish was found Wednesday (…), a sign of a probable dilution of the groundwater to pollution”, she said Wednesday at the end of the day. According to Daniel Drivière, president of the fishing company of Challerange, “we even found dead fish of more than 1.5 meter long. It is a disaster.” Analyses are underway, in particular to determine any environmental pollution by chemical and/or bacteriological.
