The Rhine River Is No Longer The `Sewer Of Europe'

STRASBOURG, France - For decades, the Rhine River was the "sewer of Europe." Tumbling from pristine lakes in the Alps, the continent's busiest waterway absorbed pesticides from Swiss chemical factories, potassium salts from Alsatian mines and heavy metals from German industry as it meandered on an 820-mile journey to the North Sea.

By 1970, the Rhine was dead. Vast amounts of untreated waste choked off its oxygen, and much of its aquatic life had vanished. Mercury and cadmium levels in the sludge soared off the charts. Contamination was so profuse near Cologne, Germany, that a 160-mile stretch was declared a danger zone.

But last November, an extraordinary discovery provided evidence that the river's fortunes have undergone a dramatic change: French biologists found that salmon and sea trout had returned to the upper Rhine for the first time in 50 years.

"We were amazed and delighted. We knew the water was getting cleaner but we did not expect this kind of result for several more years at least," said Pascal Roche, leader of the team that captured nine salmon and 35 trout at the Iffizheim Dam north of here.

"Some trout were tagged with markers by Dutch colleagues, so we knew they had successfully migrated all the way upriver to spawn," Roche said. "These fish are very sensitive to all kinds of pollutants, so the fact they made it this far proves the entire river has been transformed."

The resurrection of salmon and sea trout in the Rhine was hailed as a victory for the emergency rescue project launched in 1986 by Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Germany and the Netherlands. The nations drained by the vast Rhine River system have long bickered over who was guilty of poisoning its waters and who should pay for the cleanup, but it took a near catastrophe to stop the finger-pointing and produce action.

The alarm was triggered in November 1986 when a fire broke out in the Sandoz AG chemical factory near Basel, Switzerland. As firemen extinguished the flames, water mixed with toxic pesticides and flowed into the Rhine. The deadly cocktail killed tons of eels, fish and other animals, and prompted a drinking water alert for 50 million people as far away as Amsterdam.

The Sandoz disaster, which occurred just months after the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, gave new impetus to the struggle to save the Rhine. Over a quarter-century, European governments had spent close to $70 billion in a largely fruitless effort to curb pollution, but the Sandoz scare, coming after Chernobyl, convinced the nations along the Rhine that shock therapy was needed.

"It was definitely a turning point," said Yves Gobillon, director of the Rhine-Meuse water agency. "The environment suddenly became a hot political issue for many voters, so governments had to respond more effectively. And companies realized they had to change their behavior or face consumer boycotts that would destroy profits."

In 1987, a bold program drawn up by the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine was approved unanimously by the five governments. It cited several key goals for the end of the decade: slashing the discharge of noxious substances into the river by 50 percent, establishing a riverwide alert system and rigid safety precautions to prevent dumping of toxins, and restoring the Rhine's original flora and fauna.

The program has been so successful that most goals already have been achieved. Lead, mercury and dioxin levels have been cut by 70 percent, while those of chrome, nickel and other poisonous heavy metals have declined by half.

Modern waste-treatment plants have made treated river water safe enough to drink again. Industrial accidents have become rare because of the tight controls and because many factories that generate dangerous materials have been moved away from the river. International patrols now scour the Rhine to clamp down on clandestine polluters.

Recognizing that protecting the environment improves their stature with consumers, chemical companies all along the Rhine, such as Hoechst AG, Ciba-Geigy AG, Roche Holding AG, Bayer AG and BASF AG, donated hundreds of millions of dollars to university research centers that are pursuing new methods to protect the river. "They all want to be considered good guys now," Gobillon said.

Nonetheless, experts say the fight against pollution has not yet been won. Nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations are still too high because of the large amounts of fertilizers and pesticides that drain from farms into the river. About one-third of all nitrogen discharged into the North Sea comes from the Rhine.