Cyanide Leak Poisons Fish in Czech River
Date: 18-Jan-06
Country: CZECH REPUBLIC
"It is one of the most serious accidents we have had in recent years ... but there is no reason to worry that it will have further consequences for other animals or people," said Czech Environment Inspection spokeswoman Eva Roleckova.
She said the poisonous cyanide, thought to have leaked from a chemicals factory, could not be dissolved in water but was being gradually eliminated through contact with oxygen.
Concentration levels should drop especially after the Labe's fork with the high-volume Vltava river north of Prague.
Karel Dostal, in charge of dealing with the accident for the Povodi Labe company which administers the river, said concentration levels would drop below those deemed toxic by the time the spill reached Germany in about three days.
The inspectorate said it believed the discharge had come from the Lucebni Zavody Draslovka a.s. Kolin plant, which produces chemicals for use in pharmaceuticals and farming, and it would launch an investigation.
The company said in a statement that a technical fault on Jan. 9 caused an overfilling of a detoxification pit and most probably also an overflow of waste water containing cyanide into the river.
Cyanide is a poisonous substance used in textile, paper and plastics industries, as well as in gold mining.
A massive cyanide leak from a Romanian gold smelter in 2000 poisoned millions of fish in the Tisza and Danube rivers in Romania and Hungary.