NEWS

Chemicals threaten water table

Large quantities of expired fertilizers and pesticides which have been abandoned for more than year near Yliki Lake in Viotia, north of Attica, have yet to be destroyed, local officials told Kathimerini yesterday. Yliki Lake is the main source of drinking water for Athens and there are fears that the potentially dangerous chemicals have seeped into the local water table. Local officials discovered some 12 months ago that the pesticides and fertilizers had been left in a warehouse near the village of Stroviki, just 50 meters from the Melanas River. The building had been rented by a company which packaged fertilizers but has gone out of business, local officials said. A prosecutor ordered state environmental inspectors to visit the site in June. The experts reported that the manner in which the chemicals had been left broke the law and recommended the firm be fined 26,000 euros. The mayor of nearby Akraifnia, Ilias Zygoyiannis, told Kathimerini that the prosecutor’s order for the chemicals to be destroyed has yet to be carried out.

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