Environmentalists blame 2022 Oder River disaster on mining

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Greenpeace environmental group says that wastewater discharge from Poland’s coal mines was most likely responsible for the 2022 massive fish die-off in the Oder River. Greenpeace Poland also warned that the situation may reoccur this year and also hit Poland’s largest river the Vistula if the government and the coalmining industry don’t take immediate steps to counter the problem. The fish die-out was blamed on deadly type of algae that thrives in highly salty water and in hot temperatures. The group presented results from their salinity levels tests in the Oder and Vistula Rivers that showed that the levels shot up after the rivers’ waters travel through Poland’s southern coalmining region of Silesia.