Fish deaths in Vinnytsia region: why a working group set up by Groysman's associates for political reasons does not want to put an end to this story

On Friday, January 19, the fourth meeting of the Vinnytsia Regional Council's working group, which was created to establish the causes of the mass death of fish at the aqua farm in the village of Stepashky, was held, UNN reports.

The head of the aqua farm, Oleksandr Korkh, spoke at the meeting via video link and reiterated that he had changed his mind about the possible causes of the massive death of nine tons of sturgeon and beluga at his enterprise. He now excludes any involvement of the Vinnytsia poultry farm in this story and suggests that the death of the fish could have been caused by a significant dose of chlorine from another water intake.

It would seem that this could be the end of the matter, but for some reason Korkh's explanations did not satisfy the chairman of the working group, a member of the regional council from Groysman's Ukrainian Strategy, Serhiy Kryveshko.

Therefore, the working group decided to ask Korch again to provide copies of the responses to his appeals to various authorities on this issue.

"In order to find out the causes of the sturgeon's death, the members of the working group decided to send an appeal to Oleksandr Korkh, director of First Aquaproduction Company LLC, to provide copies of the responses to the appeals he had sent to the relevant organizations.

The working group will also appeal to the State Ecological Inspectorate in Vinnytsia Oblast to provide the results of the study of surface water samples of the Ladyzhyn Reservoir (if they are taken) and information on the death of sturgeon within the Ladyzhyn Reservoir," reads an official statement on the Vinnytsia Oblast Council website following the working group meeting.

Some members of the working group believe that, given such decisions, its activities are gradually becoming more and more absurd. In particular, this opinion was expressed by Yevhen Shapovalov, a member of the working group, a deputy of the Vinnytsia Regional Council from the Servant of the People party, in a commentary to UNN.

"A meeting was held. Oleksandr Korkh spoke. The head of the environmental inspection in Vinnytsia region was at the meeting. His deputy had been at the previous meeting, and he came with the results of the water samples taken by the environmental inspection after the fish kill. The results were all normal, with only one indicator, I don't remember, slightly exceeding the norm, but not significantly, and this could not be, in his words, the cause of the death of this fish.

As for my impressions of the meeting, there have been some improvements in the organization of the process. But still, some of the wording is rather strange. In other words, there are improvements in terms of organization, but in terms of substance, everyone understands that the very essence of the group's work is absurd. If one subject of the appeal, Mr. Korch, has already determined that he himself removes potential claims in his speech, then what are we looking at here? My colleagues also asked the question: what will be the result of this working group? No one can say. That is, the process continues, but its very essence is becoming absurd," Shapovalov said.

Context

On October 3, 2023, a massive fish pestilence occurred on the lake of the Ladyzhyn Reservoir in the village of Stepashky, Vinnytsia region.

According to Oleksandr Korkh, head of the First Aquaproduction Company LLC, three thousand sturgeon and beluga sturgeon with a total weight of nine tons died.

The State Environmental Inspectorate in Vinnytsia Oblast took water samples in the lake. The results of the examination showed that the indicators of ammonium nitrogen, nitrite ions, phosphates, sulfates, and chlorite ions were within the permissible range.

Subsequently, the head of the Union of Ecologists of Ukraine, Viktor Bulgakov , explainedthat, according to the results of the research, the economic activities of the Vinnytsia poultry farm could not have led to the death of fish.

"There is a certain objective situation that basically looks like this: general water use, water intake issues, and then the emergence of certain effluents and water circulation that are not related to external industrial enterprises.

I personally went to the site, we conducted a survey and took samples for analysis. Accordingly, there are no complicated or obvious violations of the impact on the environment. In fact, Korch himself confirmed that there is no connection, natural or artificial. Accordingly, there are no impacts related to other enterprises,"  said Viktor Bulgakov.

After visiting the production facilities of the Vinnytsia poultry farm, Korch personally made surethat the company had nothing to do with the massive fish kill.

Currently, Korch considers the main version of the fish kill to be the possible ingress of chlorine from the upstream water intake. But this version, according to Korch himself, needs to be confirmed.

"Chlorine is very difficult to detect. The drinking water that flows from the taps is chlorinated because the chemical kills all living things and then simply disappears. If you ask the residents of Ladyzhyn, for six years now, the water has been turned off for a short period in the summer, and when it is turned on, it smells like fish. Chlorine simply burns the gills of sturgeons and disintegrates them," Korh says.