FETSUND LENSER (Dagbladet): The Oslofjord struggles to breathe. One of the main reasons is that Norway is worst in Scandinaviaand behind the EU countries, the nitrogen purification of the country’s many hundreds of sewage plants is decidedly insufficient.
– When I was Minister of Environmental Protection, state support for municipal sewage treatment plants was a separate item in the state budget. We already knew at the time that nitrogen was dangerous for lakes and fjords, says Berntsen.
The worst Oslo fjord in Scandinavia
The environment must prevail
Norway has only six purification plants with nitrogen treatment and over 400 without. Since the 1990s, professionals have been saying that sewage treatment plants must be treated with nitrogen.
– When we see how bad the Oslofjord is, it is clear that consideration for the environment must prevail in the future. There hasn’t been enough so far, says Berntsen.
Announced only this year The state administrator of Oslo and Viken that municipalities with discharges in the Oslofjord must plan for nitrogen removal. According to the Norwegian Environment Agency, around 50 places in eastern Norway may be needed to clean nitrogen. But municipalities are reluctant due to the high costs.
– In the 1990s, Mjøsa was dying, so Gro launched a rescue operation. Lillehammer was the first plant with nitrogen purification, Berntsen says and continues:
– Then the treatment plant arrived here, in Nedre Romerike. The state financed the facilities from the state budget. It was a big steadfast, because there were heavy investments. I believe we need to get state aid again for waste water treatment plants.
Complete talk on the wastewater on the Oslofjord: – Too expensive
There is no time to wait
Today the sewage systems are the responsibility of the municipality. Residents pay a drainage fee, which goes to the financing and management of the facilities.
– The Oslofjord is suffering and the fish are disappearing. Nitrogen destroys the oxygen in the fjord, so we need to clean it up. Considerable investments are needed and there are limits to what municipalities can manage on their own, says Berntsen.
Bad life: At Falck Nutec in Nesodden, there are a number of car and tractor tires at the bottom of the fjord. The health of the Oslo fjord is deteriorating. Nitrogen emissions are an important part of the cause. Photo: Fredrik Myhre / WWF World Wide Fund for Nature
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He points out that climate change and rising temperatures will cause even greater problems for the fjord.
– We don’t have time to wait for the Oslofjord to be completely dead. Fish, vegetation and shellfish suffer. It’s a difficult task that’s there, and it’s urgent to build new sewer systems, says Berntsen.
It also proposes “a global impact assessment of the conditions of the entire fjord”.
– The Norwegian Environment Agency could take the lead here or Raymond Johansen could bring together a number of prominent mayors along the fjord. I think we need to take a little bigger step to have an adequate overview, says the former minister of environmental protection.
He points out that the authorities already have their own professional body, NIVA (Norwegian Institute for Water Research), which can lead this work.
– We know we need to increase nitrogen purification considerably, but that’s not enough, adds Berntsen.
Right-wing Social Democrats
Berntsen knows that the measures are useful. The Oslofjord has been in even worse health in the past. When Berntsen worked as a plumber in Aker in the 1950s, deep in the Oslo Fjord, he remembers that huge amounts of waste and toxins were dumped into the fjord every day.
– There were no cleaning facilities and when we washed and cleaned the boats at the dock, all the manure disappeared directly to the bottom of the fjord. I remember some of the kids fishing for mackerel during their lunch break at the far end of the floating dock. But eventually it disappeared, because the fjord was very polluted and Akerselva destroyed, Berntsen recalls.
HØYREVRIDDE SOCIAL DEMOKRATER: Former environmental protection minister Thorbjørn Berntsen is shocked that Norwegians throw away huge quantities of food, as more and more people queue for hours for “a bag of bread and a quarter kilo of butter” . Photo: Nina Hansen / Dagbladet
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He follows the news closely, is “too much on the tablet” and is worried about climate change, which means French farmers struggled this summer to get enough water for their cows, the rise in temperature in one country later. the other and the floods in Pakistan and elsewhere.
– Ugh, that’s awful. And when it comes to politics, there is too little innovation. In Norway 500,000 tons of food are thrown away a year, while the lines in front of the Oslo poor house are getting longer and longer. We have too many Social Democrats who have turned to the right, says Berntsen.
Too little debate
Berntsen’s political awakening came as a young plumber in Aker in Oslo. During the lunch break there was a heated political debate among the workers, who then made requests and suggestions for new policies.
– I’m the uncle of Raymond Johansen (city councilor in Oslo, journ.anm). After visiting a company in Ulsteinvik, I asked him what was being said in the canteen and in the club. But there was no discussion and commitment. The people who worked there came from different countries and didn’t understand each other. It will not be a laboratory of ideas and a new way of thinking, says Berntsen.
OPINION VIEWS: Thorbjørn Berntsen was known for making headlines and sparked international attention when in 1993 he called British Environment Minister John Gummer “the greatest idiot I have ever met in my life”. Photo: Nina Hansen / Dagbladet
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He will soon turn 88, but he is at least as politically committed as before and speaks regularly with the current Minister of Climate and Environment Protection Espen Barth Eide (Ap).
– He is working on a report for Storting on how we need to adapt to the new changes that are coming due to climate change. How we can build, the risk of landslides and floods, where we can have roads, houses and businesses. We need to be much more aware and think long-term than we do today, says Berntsen.
– A pioneer
Today’s Minister of Climate and Environmental Protection Espen Barth Eide calls Thorbjørn Berntsen “a pioneer”.
– What we are doing now is laying the groundwork for what Thorbjørn Berntsen set in motion in the 1990s. At the time, many thought that the Oslo Fjord’s poor health was the fault of foreigners. Today we know that the water that comes from Swedes, Germans and Danes is much better than that of Oslofjord, Barth Eide tells Dagbladet.
But Barth Eide will have no state support for nitrogen purification sewage systems.
– We have a distribution between municipalities, provincial municipalities and the state and we cannot change it. Different municipalities have different needs, says the minister.
Twice
He points out that twice as many people live in the Oslo region today as in 1990.
– Different municipalities have different needs. The costs of wastewater must be collected locally and are not in competition with schools, health services or other services, says Barth Eide.
He reiterates that he has great respect for Thorbjørn Berntsen and for all he has been able to do as Minister of Environmental Protection.
– Fortunately, a lot has happened in the last year regarding the Oslo Fjord, while there is still a long way to go. Drainage is one thing, but there is a lot to do for agriculture too, and we work on that systematically, says Barth Eide and adds:
– In the past, people were happy to blame foreign countries – or each other. There is now a common understanding that everyone must take measures. We also have a lot of faulty tubes all over Norway so there is a lot to do and everyone has to contribute.
