Too much salt in the river kills the fish, crayfish and insects in the water. Nevertheless, in Germany, salty industrial waste water flows into many rivers via sewage treatment plants. Totally legal. The investigative journalist Alexa Höber has followed the trail of the salt and reports on it at 11KM: from a small river in North Rhine-Westphalia called Lutter, straight through the administrative jungle, to the natural gas company where the salty wastewater comes from the depths. According to the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, many of the animal species that have disappeared from this river are considered endangered or threatened with extinction. The aquatic insects are often food for birds, so such extinctions can lead to an irreversible loss of biodiversity. Alexa Höber made a film about the research on the Lutter for the NDR program Panorama 3: https://www.ndr.de/fernsehen/sendungen/panorama3/Versalzen-Abwasser-eines-Erdgasunternehmens-bedroeht-Fluesse,fluesse160.html The following were involved in this episode: Authors: Hans Christoph Böhringer and Sandro Schröder Editorial support: Katharina Hübel Production: Fabian Zweck, Victor Veress and Alex Berge Editorial management: Fumiko Lipp and Lena Gürtler Host: Hannes Kunz 11KM: the tagesschau podcast is a production of BR24 and NDR Info. The editorial responsibility for this episode lies with the NDR.
The Trace of Salt · ARD Audiothek
