• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Toxic Spill at Ohio Yogurt Plant Kills 8,000 Fish

Posted on: Saturday, 17 September 2005, 00:00 CDT

Sep. 15--MINSTER -- A caustic cleaning solution released at Dannon Co. wiped out the yogurt factory's waste pretreatment system over the weekend, creating a potent discharge that overwhelmed this Auglaize County village's wastewater treatment plant and killed at least 8,000 fish in the Miami & Erie Canal.

Sunfish, large- and small-mouth bass, channel and bullhead catfish, suckers, carp, minnows, shad and crawfish were among the casualties along a two-mile stretch of the canal downstream of the wastewater plant, said Joel Buddelmeyer, lead investigator of the pollution incident for the state Division of Wildlife.

The value of the fish killed exceeds $1,000, but the exact value won't be established until investigators finalize the number of fish killed, which could exceed 10,000, Buddelmeyer said.

Dannon, which accounts for about half of the 900,000 gallons of waste treated daily by Minster's wastewater plant, immediately stopped production and discharging waste after the spill was detected Monday, company spokesman Michael Neuwirth said.

While the company has since resumed some production, it is having the waste hauled away under a temporary arrangement, Neuwirth said

Meanwhile, the village is trying to restore its capability to treat sewage after the potent brew of dairy products and 4,000 gallons of cleaning solution discharged by Dannon killed much of the bacteria that digest waste, said Dan Haehn, superintendent of water and wastewater treatment for the village of 2,800.

He said 17,000 gallons of "activated sludge" have been trucked in from the nearby village of St. Marys to help raise bacteria levels.

Ohio Environmental Protection Agency officials expect it will take another day or two before the plant can sufficiently treat its sewage to meet Clean Water Act requirements and begin discharging into the canal, agency spokeswoman Dina Pierce said.

-----

To see more of the Dayton Daily News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.daytondailynews.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, Dayton Daily News, Ohio

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

DA, BN,

Source: Dayton Daily News

More News in this Category