The head of a French fishing federation has lodged a complaint against global food conglomerate Nestlé, after thousands of fish were found dead in a river in north-eastern France.
Several tonnes of dead fish were reported in the Aisne river at the weekend, close to a Nestlé factory.
The deaths were due to a decrease in oxygen levels in the water, the local prefecture said on Tuesday.
Tests are being carried out to determine the origin of the pollution.
The dead fish were found near Challerange, 50km (31 miles) from Reims, the prefecture said in a statement.
"We have lodged a complaint against Nestlé France for pollution and violation of article 432.2 of the environmental code," said Michel Adam, president of the Ardennes Fishing Federation.
The damage amounts to "several thousand euros", he added. "Everything died in an area seven kilometres (4.3 miles) long and 30 metres wide."
"We have already recovered three tonnes of dead fish. But there are still some left. Some 14 species have been affected, including protected species such as eels and lamprey.
"I have been with the federation for 40 years, I have never seen pollution of this magnitude," he added.
The Nestlé factory in Challerange, which manufactures powdered milk, confirmed in a statement that there had been an "occasional and involuntary overflow of biological sludge effluent, without the presence of chemicals" from its wastewater treatment plant on Sunday evening.
"As soon as we learned of the report on Sunday at 23:00 (21:00 GMT), we immediately stopped production and put an end to the spill," factory director Tony do Rio said in a statement quoted by the Franceinfo website on Wednesday.
"This spill was a one-off [and lasted] less than three hours on Sunday evening," he said, adding that activity at the factory had been stopped for a few days.
Since the discovery of the dead fish, volunteer fishermen and firefighters have been working to clean up the river. A dam had also been installed to contain the spread of pollution, the prefecture said.
IAmKnightSolaire on August 14th, 2020 at 16:20 UTC »
It says the spill was from a powdered milk factory and the fish were killed by oxygen depletion in the river. Powdered milk is manufactured with a physical process rather than a chemical process, so it seems likely that the spill contained excess nutrients from the milk rather than toxic chemicals. This probably caused a bloom of microorganisms which depleted the oxygen and killed the fish.
Milk powder is manufactured by spraying milk through a misting nozzle into a heated chamber where the water evaporates off and the milk falls to the floor as powder where it is collected. No hazardous chemicals involved, just heat.
I hope you don't think I'm trying to defend Nestle btw, fuck Nestle.
maggotbrownie on August 14th, 2020 at 13:02 UTC »
Nestle is an exceptionally evil company.
/r/fucknestle
Still_Contract_2617 on August 14th, 2020 at 12:40 UTC »
Nestle has never really been a beacon of environmental awareness. Like DuPont, one might wonder how such a company stays in business with the ridiculous depths of violation and occurrence against people and nature which history shows?