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The mildness in calves: bluish-oily shimmer
Photo: Peter Gercke / picture-alliance / dpa
In the north of Saxony-Anhalt, halfway between Berlin and Hanover, there is a very special river. One that doesn't even have one name – but three: the mildness rises at the source, the middle course is called Biese, the last stretch to the mouth of the Elbe is called Aland. Recently, this body of water has another unique selling point of the rather unsightly kind: an environmental disaster, the cause, extent and consequences of which are still largely unknown.
The matter is also explosive because it brings back memories of the Oder disaster last year. Probably due to high temperatures and enormous salt levels, poisonous golden algae had spread in the stream and triggered a mass death of fish – and there are already indications that something similar could happen again in the Oder this year.
The Altmark is far away from the Oder, but the river there drains a huge area and eventually flows into the Elbe. So far, only the upper reaches, which are called mild there, have been affected. Near Kalbe, a small town with 37 districts and less than 7500 inhabitants, anglers have taken more and more carcasses out of the water in recent days.
First only a few, then on Monday there was already talk of 25 kilos, now it is more than 110 kilograms, and the trend continues to rise.
The police, who made the case public at the beginning of the week, had taken water samples on Saturday and determined inconspicuous values, but subsequent samples nourished the suspicion of contamination. In the meantime, the authority in Stendal is investigating on suspicion of an environmental crime.
Apparently, it is not only certain fish species that are affected. The chairman of the Kalbe fishing club, Kay Grahmann, told MDR that dead carp, pike, chubs and various white fish species had been recovered. According to Grahmann, he has also found suspicious injuries to the animals: the gill valves are glued together, the protective mucus layers have disappeared.
And there are even more indications that destroy all too high hopes for a quick all-clear: The authorities have registered a bluish shimmering, oily liquid on the surface of the water. "We don't yet know what this is," says Inka Ludwig, spokeswoman for the Altmark district of Salzwedel. In any case, the police are assuming an environmental crime, and the district is investigating on suspicion of harmful water pollution.
How could the unknown substance have gotten there? Completely unclear. The only thing that is clear is that it would not be a trivial offense if the suspicion were to be substantiated: the intentional pollution of waters can be punished with up to five years in prison.
Whether it is a local phenomenon or the beginning of a major catastrophe is also still uncertain, according to Ludwig. The Office of Consumer Protection has sent dead fish to a laboratory, and the water is currently being examined – the results are awaited.
Meanwhile, the Environment Agency is trying to limit the damage: According to authority spokeswoman Ludwig, experts have now opened a weir on the upper course of the river to increase the flow rate of the mild and thus weaken a dangerous concentration of the suspected toxins. In addition, the office had oil barriers and oil binding mats erected. This is intended to prevent, at least that's what those responsible hope for, that the fish mortality will continue in other districts or even in neighboring Lower Saxony.
Otherwise, the people in the Altmark can apparently only wait and see. According to professional angler Grahmann, the particularly affected section of the river near Kalbe is now closed, and his club colleagues maintain a sad ritual every evening: landing nets for dead fish from the mildness.