On the side of Talsi, there is such a 10-kilometer-long Dzelzupe. The color corresponding to its name, which flows from the springs, can indeed be seen in some places, but this river is more famous for the fact that at times it turns into a “slug” because untreated sewage gets into it. While the residents of the surrounding houses gave up in a struggle of several years, a local enthusiast took over – without waiting for responsible action, he cleaned several kilometers of the river with his own hands.
Every river in Latvia must have its own ranger who takes care of it. That’s why Gatis Strauss, a man from Talsi, has taken on the leadership of Dzelzupi in Talsi district. And he is so active that he is even a thorn in the side of many. “It all started with the Stende river, the entire center of Pastende is finished, everything is closed, and then I brought up the topic – how could we fight the dams and improve the environment, so that there are beautiful places for walks in the center of Pastende and watch salmon-like fish spawning in the swift current. But it’s private, nothing can be done there, and that’s how it ended. In the end, I think Dzelzupe should be looked at. I approached, and everything there smelled of sewage,” says Gatis Strauss, a resident of Talsi.
Interest in Dzelzupi Gatim was aroused by a plot several years ago, where locals are powerlessly fighting for the right to live in a clean environment. He himself is an active runner every day, so he has a lot of energy and he wants to use it by helping those whose hands have already fallen. “I cleared this section a week ago with the locals. He came down with a saw, sawed out, pulled the trees out. They were happy that I was coming to help. Children can no longer approach that river. Everything stinks, some worms, you can see here – the edges are still left, where all the stink has not been washed away. When you get in, it smells like sewage. Within a week, you can already see the result, where the bed has appeared white. All that flow to the river was restored. And down there, where the ore springs are, trout are already appearing,” explains Gatis Strauss.
Not long ago, during one of his patrols, the Dzelzupes ranger accidentally managed to record the leakage of sewage sludge from the treatment plant. He said he wanted to cry, because all the work invested in the wind. During the walk, Gatis gives us polarized glasses so that we can also observe the red worms that live in the sewage sludge.
Later, the biologists explained to Gat that those small roundworms that multiply in such a mass only in places with high organic pollution. The solution is to rake the mass and, if the fall allows, build rapids and rapids. “It stinks here… And who can live here like this… There are poisoned, I don’t know what kind of living creatures. There would be a criminal case for such a variant, how many have been poisoned here. A person stings one sea trout, he has a fine of 700 euros, but he has been killing the river for years and there is nothing. As much as you can talk, you need to start doing something,” said Gatis Strauss.
And the ranger did the same – he cut reeds with a machete and placed stones in the river – so that more oxygen is produced and the fish have a place to hide. Learned tips from experts through self-study on the Internet. “You have to make sure that the river has a solid bottom, and the speed of the current must be right. Putting a stone in the river creates oxygen in this way. And this is considered a natural river water treatment facility. The first sign of a river is that it gurgles, so it is alive,” explains G. Strauss.
Many people do not understand and do not believe in his views. But this gives the ranger an even greater desire to achieve justice: “You can’t turn some river into India Gandhi, something where everything stinks, and turn the whole environment into some kind of shit hole, as you could call it in rude terms.”
This summer, a fisherman’s dream will come true, and the “real estate of the Ministry of Agriculture” will clean and tidy the river. With his activity, the talsinik managed to clean a part of the river by hand. Because there are unique values, countless ore sources and there are also cell stones in the river, which we find when wading.
While the cell stones are returning to the river, Gatis has built a monument for himself from the waste found in it. “I took five bags of garbage from the river that came out,” explains G. Strauss.
The iron lake will be cleaned and fixed, but if at some point an accident happens again in the treatment facilities, the bad things will simply reach the Baltic Sea faster. Is it good? SIA “Talsu udes” plans to solve the root of the problem in the foreseeable future. But what until then? “First of all, we plan to take analyzes by ourselves in our laboratory. This means that we will take both in the discharge and also in wells in the city, where we have production companies, to be able to understand whether there is external pollution. In addition to that, we will improve the operation of treatment facilities as much as possible, add pumps to have a better technological process,” explains Kristīne Riekstiņa Sniedziņa, head of the Administrative Department of SIA “Talsu ūdes”.
The reconstruction of Talsi wastewater treatment facilities is planned to start at the end of this year, at the beginning of next year, attracting EU funding, but the company understands that there is still a lot of work to do in order to prevent new accidents in the technically obsolete facilities and structures. The Iron Soup Ranger will definitely be on the lookout for it as well.
2024-04-23 08:01:17