With the floods came new problems. In Durazno thousands of dead fish appeared in the coastal area of Yi River.
The mayor of Durazno, Domingo Rielli, said people of Durazno started to "denounce many dead fish on the coast of the Yi River. The situation worried everyone "in a very special way," he said. The authorities of the Intendance contacted representatives of the Ministry of Livestock in Durazno, they extracted and analyzed intakes of dead fish. So did the ministry.
The Intendance issued a statement that the population is not consume those fish. "Keep in mind that die in the same waters in which, upstream, extraction for drinking water is done in Duranzo," said Rielli.
According to the hierarch, the fish appeared in the entire coastal area of the Yi River, especially below the new bridge, which is on Route 5. There is still no official confirmation about the cause of dead fish but while awaiting the results of the studies there are some hypotheses. "On one hand people talk that the elements used for the agriculture can be contaminated, the Ministry of Livestock says that going into the water they may have changed their natural habitat, although this was dismissed by people who know the river, they say that this never happened before. The position of Director of Environment is that it could be the presence of toxic algae that intoxicated fish."

(www.180.com.uy, 17 February 2010)