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About 165 gallons of an agricultural-use chemical leaked into a Roanoke-area creek over the weekend, resulting in fish kill estimated in the tens of thousands, Virginia officials announced Monday.
The chemical was identified as Termix 5301, a type of surfactant (detergent-like substance) added to herbicide and pesticide products before application, according to the Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
The substance leaked from a punctured container on the property of Crop Production Services, a farm supply store in Cloverdale. The chemical was then washed into Tinker Creek by rainfall. Officials were notified of the spill on Saturday.
Before the DEQ identified the chemical as Termix, multiple area residents reported seeing bubbles, suds and hundreds of dead fish in the water.
DEQ said the fish that died includes all sizes and types of fish, including sunfish, rock bass and smallmouth bass, large suckers, and many smaller species such as minnows and darters.
"We are continuing to count the fish because that does figure into whether there's a penalty against the company and we will be continuing to monitor the water quality," DEQ spokesman Bill Hayden said.
Residents living up to 5 miles downstream from the spill have also reported seeing other types of dead wildlife.
"There's no birds, there's no insects, and I hope that doesn't mean that something very, very serious has happened," local homeowner Stephen Rossi told WSLS 10.
Rossi also suspects that about two-thirds of the bees in his beehive have died from the water contamination.
"They started to have a major die-off. There was probably thousands in a circle on the bottom, on the ground, unable to fly, paralyzed or whatever, and so what I did was I took and brought some fresh water up," said Rossi.
Dr. Skip Brenzovich, an associate professor of chemistry at Roanoke College, explained to WSLS 10 about the potential environmental risks of the Termix 5301 leak.
"It is not an herbicide itself, which means we hopefully don't have to worry about massive plant die-offs along Tinker Creek, which was my first concern when I heard of a herbicide spill. However, these things are more toxic to aquatic organisms than they are to terrestrial organisms such as humans," Brenzovich said.
Crews are still working to assess the damage from the incident. DEQ said the chemical release has been contained, and there are no reports of public exposure. The department also noted that the creek will recover and that life will return, but it could take several years.
"It ultimately may take several years to return to normal, but the stream will recover and aquatic life will repopulate the affected areas," the DEQ said.
Crop Production Services has hired a contractor to clean up the spill, officials said.
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If people in three European countries want to fight the climate crisis, they need to chill out more.
That's the conclusion of a new study from think tank Autonomy, which found that Germany, the UK and Sweden all needed to drastically reduce their workweeks to fight climate change.
"The rapid pace of labour-saving technology brings into focus the possibility of a shorter working week for all, if deployed properly," Autonomy Director Will Stronge said, The Guardian reported. "However, while automation shows that less work is technically possible, the urgent pressures on the environment and on our available carbon budget show that reducing the working week is in fact necessary."
The report found that if the economies of Germany, Sweden and the UK maintain their current levels of carbon intensity and productivity, they would need to switch to a six, 12 and nine hour work week respectively if they wanted keep the rise in global temperatures to the below two degrees Celsius promised by the Paris agreement, The Independent reported.
The study based its conclusions on data from the UN and the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) on greenhouse gas emissions per industry in all three countries.
The report comes as the group Momentum called on the UK's Labour Party to endorse a four-day work week.
"We welcome this attempt by Autonomy to grapple with the very real changes society will need to make in order to live within the limits of the planet," Emma Williams of the Four Day Week campaign said in a statement reported by The Independent. "In addition to improved well-being, enhanced gender equality and increased productivity, addressing climate change is another compelling reason we should all be working less."
Supporters of the idea linked it to calls in the U.S. and Europe for a Green New Deal that would decarbonize the economy while promoting equality and well-being.
"This new paper from Autonomy is a thought experiment that should give policymakers, activists and campaigners more ballast to make the case that a Green New Deal is absolutely necessary," Common Wealth think tank Director Mat Lawrence told The Independent. "The link between working time and GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions has been proved by a number of studies. Using OECD data and relating it to our carbon budget, Autonomy have taken the step to show what that link means in terms of our working weeks."
Stronge also linked his report to calls for a Green New Deal.
"Becoming a green, sustainable society will require a number of strategies – a shorter working week being just one of them," he said, according to The Guardian. "This paper and the other nascent research in the field should give us plenty of food for thought when we consider how urgent a Green New Deal is and what it should look like."
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