Water testing after Menindee fish kill shows a ‘chronically sick’ river

A second round of water testing of the Darling-Baaka River at Menindee has shown nutrient levels are still above guideline recommendations. Photograph: Otis Filley/The Guardian

Water testing results from the Darling-Baaka River at Menindee indicate the river is “chronically sick” and raise concerns about the health of the Murray-Darling basin, experts say.

The New South Wales Environment Protection Authority released the second round of test results days after the state government declared it would investigate the deaths of millions of fish at Menindee in far-west NSW as a “pollution incident”.