The Taichung City Government yesterday removed hundreds of dead fish from Wuci Drainage Canal (梧棲大排), which residents say had been emitting a “suffocating” odor.
The city’s Environmental Protection Bureau said that a sample taken from the canal indicated an oxygen content of 0.1mg per liter, about 20 times below the normal value.
Residents said that the dead fish covered a 3.5km stretch of water, adding that it was the second incident in which large amounts of fish had died in the canal.
Bureau official Chen Hsing-yun (陳星勻) said that household wastewater most likely killed the fish, as it is discharged directly into the canal and a preliminary analysis of the sample indicated that the water had not been contaminated by heavy metals.
He said that less than 30 percent of households in Taichung are connected to the municipality’s sewage system.
The recent lack of rainfall could be the reason behind the incident, as there has not been enough clean water to dilute the effluents, Chen said.
He said that the bureau would conduct a detailed analysis on the sample collected yesterday, the results of which would be due next week.
Asked about the likelihood of the fish having been killed by waste from factories or nearby animal farms, he said the bureau has not ruled out the possibility, as these two types of wastewater are also dumped directly into the canal.
He said that Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) has given the bureau strict orders to maintain the environment near the drainage canal, and the agency would launch an inspection on animal farms and factories near the canal to find out whether wastewater is properly treated.
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