The gusts of wind caused this leak in the Thérain river, a tributary of the Oise.
The episode of violent winds which affected the Hauts-de-France on Sunday caused a fertilizer leak near Songeons (Oise), polluting the Thérain river and killing many fish, announced Thursday the prefecture, which prohibits the use of this water.
“The windy episode on Sunday, October 23 damaged a tank containing liquid fertilizer, which spilled into the sewerage and rainwater network“, indicates the prefecture in a press release. “The main consequence of this pollution is fish mortality on the course of the Thérain, from Songeons and downstream from Beauvais.“, she continues.
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“Thanks to the intervention of the State services concerned, the municipality of Songeons and Véolia, this flow has been put an end to.“And the networks have been cleaned, assures the prefecture. But the “treatment capacity of the Songeons wastewater treatment plant was also disrupted“, and the full restoration of service will take “probably a few weeks“, she specifies.
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Restrictive measures on fishing and water
As a precaution, the prefect of the Oise has banned for ten days fishing, the consumption of fish, and the use of water – for watering animals or water sports in particular – on the perimeter of Thérain, its arm, and the bodies of water they feed, from Thinking to the confluence of the Oise. Forty municipalities are concerned. Violent winds and tornadoes hit about fifteen municipalities in Oise, Somme and Pas-de-Calais on Sunday evening.
In Oise, where a 9-year-old child was slightly injured in the head by a gate, 177 homes were affected, mainly their roofs. In Pas-de-Calais, 136 homes were impacted, 50 of which are no longer usable, according to the authorities. In the Somme, 80 homes are affected in Conty according to the firefighters, of which a dozen are “uninhabitable“, and 7 in O-de-Selle, according to the prefecture.
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