The Swedish Environmental Protection Association (NMF) demands that the Norwegian Environment Agency withdraw permission for dredging and blasting in Borg harbour
By: Jan-Hugo Holten
In a statement to the directorate on its permit to the Coastal Administration of 18 October 2019, the NMF demands that the permit be withdrawn due to the excessive uncertainty of blasting and dredging in the Borg harbor area.
Enormous amounts of sediments must be dredged
The Norwegian Coastal Administration plans to dredge 3.3 million m3 of sediments in various danger classes as well as blow up grounds to make the fairway into, among other things, Fredrikstad safer. Neither the application nor the permit that NMF has gone through creates the necessary confidence that the measures can be carried out without major environmental consequences.
In a previous statement, the NMF has demanded that all the dredged mass be disposed of on land. This is because the NMF wants to control the pollution and does not want a repeat of previously unsuccessful sea landfills. An example is the Malmøycalven.
In the statement from NMF, one can read the following;
"On the basis of insufficient documentation and the risk of pollution and destruction of marine habitats and life in the water column through both dredging and blasting, the Norwegian Environmental Protection Association (NM) will demand that the permit be withdrawn until better methods have been investigated".
As the application and permit stand today, we cannot vouch for the plans and permit applied for.
Should better methods come up, especially regarding dredging and a better plan for landfill, we might want to look at it with new eyes, says case manager Jan-Hugo Holten in NMF.
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