German laboratory detects excessive pesticide levels in Oder river

As officials on both sides of the Oder river that runs along the Polish-German border try to find the cause of the recent mass fish die-off, a German laboratory has detected excessive pesticide levels in the water.

Samples taken at the Frankfurt (Oder) monitoring station, some 100 kilometres east of Berlin, between August 7-9 showed high concentrations of a pesticide containing the active ingredient 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, the regional Environment Ministry of the state of Brandenburg announced on Saturday.

However, it could be assumed that the detected dose wasn't the direct cause of the mass fish deaths, it said. The active ingredient is used as a weed killer, for example.

According to the ministry, it's more likely that the environmental disaster is due to several causes. However, the excessive concentration of the pesticide over several days certainly had an impact on animals, plants and microorganisms, officials said.

The ministry didn't rule out the possibility that even higher concentrations of the pesticide were present upstream, meaning the they had already been heavily diluted upon reaching Frankfurt (Oder).

On the other side of the river, the Polish fire brigade has recovered 158 tonnes of dead fish from the Oder and a smaller river so far, a spokesperson told dpa on Saturday.

The largest share was recovered from the Oder, she added. The smaller Ner river, where dead animals were also found floating on the water surface, rises south of Lodz and flows into the Warta. It's not linked to the Oder.

According to earlier estimates from the Brandenburg ministry, at least 36 tonnes of dead fish have been recovered in the German sate so far.