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Nestle has been sued by the head of a French fishing federation after finding thousands of dead fish in a Northeastern French river.

The tons of dead fish were found in the Aisne river near a Nestle plant. It has been uncovered that the cause of death for the wildlife in the river was due to decreased oxygen levels in the water, according to reports from a local prefecture.

In an official statement, Michel Adam, president of the Ardennes Fishing Foundation said, "We have lodged a complaint against Nestlé France for pollution and violation of article 432.2 of the environmental code,” further adding that the damage amounts to “several thousand euros.”

Describing the extent of the damage, Adam said, "Everything died in an area seven kilometres (4.3 miles) long and 30 metres wide." Authorities “have already recovered three tonnes of dead fish. But there are still some left. Some 14 species have been affected, including protected species such as eels and lamprey.”

Adam didn’t stop there, finishing his complaint with the statement, "I have been with the federation for 40 years, I have never seen pollution of this magnitude.”

The Nestle factory in Challerange which produces powdered milks has admitted to an "occasional and involuntary overflow of biological sludge effluent, without the presence of chemicals,” which occurred on Sunday.

According to factory director Tony do Rio, "As soon as we learned of the report on Sunday at 23:00 (21:00 GMT), we immediately stopped production and put an end to the spill.” He further added that "This spill was a one-off [and lasted] less than three hours on Sunday evening.”

As firefighters and fishermen volunteer continue to clean up the spill, it remains to be seen whether French authorities will pursue charges against Nestle for the spill.

Regardless, this is definitely bad PR for a company with an already controversial track record.

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