Around 175,000 liters of liquid manure in the Mühlviertel in Bach

In order to get the pollution under control, the volunteer fire brigade set up a shift operation that was busy until Sunday morning pumping out the water-slurry mixture and distributing it on surrounding meadows, the police and fire brigade reported on Sunday. When officials got to the farmer’s farm where the contamination originated, the pump was still running in the already empty slurry tank. According to the farmer, a technical defect was the cause of the massive pollution, the Lasberg fire department said.

Attempts by the farmer in the afternoon to stop the dirty water by digging a catch basin failed due to the amount of contamination. To stop the masses, the fire brigade was deployed and used a water cannon to spread the mixture over the surrounding meadows. The 30 or so comrades took turns working in shifts every three hours well into the night.

On Sunday morning, the clean water could drain off as usual and the liquid manure was collected separately. According to information from the fire brigade, the responsible authority is examining further steps and measures as part of a local inspection on Monday morning.