On Sunday, Dagbladet wrote that the Norwegian coastal administration will begin the so-called trial dredging in Fredrikstad harbor on Monday.
First, around 10,000 cubic meters of bulk material will be brought to the bottom of the sea. Hopefully, the Norwegian Environment Agency has cleared an additional 700,000 cubic meters of toxic sludge in the offshore landfill in the outer Oslofjord.
– Complete nonsense. Out of sight out of mind. This is Norway’s answer to Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro: How to burn the forest in the Amazon, Knut Rudi, professor and microbiologist at the Norwegian University of Environment and Life Sciences, enraged, NMBU.
Dump toxic sludge in the Oslofjord
Now the Green Party (MDG) is also on the field.
– The health of the Oslofjord is serious. Decades of constant fjord pollution and neglect by politicians have destroyed an ecosystem that will take a long time to rebuild, even with the right efforts. If so, it is unjustifiable for the government to allow the polluted masses of Borg Harvn to be disposed of at sea, MDG leader Arild Hermstad writes in an email to Dagbladet.
– When the government chooses to go for the cheapest solution, it ignores that a clean and sustainable fjord is both profitable and necessary in the long run, he continues, and points out:
– It is possible to deposit all masses on land, and this could lead to safer storage without the risk of environmental toxins and polluted masses spreading into the fjord and the sea. Such a spread could have catastrophic consequences for life in the fjord when we need further measures to strengthen and protect life here.
The Norwegian Environment Agency, for its part, stresses that the approach must be extended “to take care of the accessibility needs of maritime transport and reduce the possibility of accidents that could be harmful to people and the environment” .
– When we imposed stringent environmental requirements on the coastal administration in 2019, we assessed the pollution-related disadvantages of improving the fairway to Borg harbor against the advantages and disadvantages that this measure would otherwise have entailed. This assessment also included an assessment of the possible authorization of seabed disposal, Kari Holden, section leader in the Norwegian Environment Agency’s section for seas and sediments, said Sunday in the case of Dagbladet.
He pointed out that their permit was also approved by the Ministry of Climate and Environment in connection with a complaint in 2020.
– Trial dredging that begins next week is part of the permit conditions and will be closely monitored, Holden said.
