A landslide of contaminated soil that threatens to pollute a water stream in Denmark has prompted the nation’s government to consider tightening environmental and corporate laws.
Danish authorities have enlisted 100 workers and 80 trucks to avoid “a potential environmental disaster,” Environment Minister Magnus Heunicke said at a news conference on Friday.
The efforts come as some three million cubic meters of contaminated soil is estimated to be moving at a speed of almost 10 meters (32.8 feet) a day near the city of Randers, in a landslide that started in December at facilities operated by Nordic Waste. The soil-treatment company, which has vacated the premises, filed for bankruptcy earlier on Friday, and the soil’s movements won’t stop on their own, Heunicke said.
“The landslide is constantly developing, and therefore we have to be ready at all times to take new steps” to ensure that citizens are safe and to avoid pollution of a nearby water stream, the minister said.
After Nordic Waste left, local authorities took charge of the efforts to contain the soil in mid-December. The government will now take “all legal steps” possible to ensure those responsible for the pollution are held financially accountable for the cleanup.
“It’s a legal and moral principle that the polluter is responsible for cleaning up and paying,” Heunicke said.
Nordic Waste’s main shareholder, Torben Ostergaard-Nielsen, is Denmark’s sixth richest, according to Okonomisk Ugebrev‘s list of wealthiest Danes last year.
The Danish government will review the company’s environmental permits and is prepared to tighten legislation to avoid similar events from happening in the future, Heunicke said. Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard, speaking at the same briefing, said the government will also look at corporate laws to ensure firms can’t avoid paying the bill for environmental cleanup by “simply declaring the company bankrupt.”
Photograph: Environment Minister Magnus Heunicke; Photo credit: Henrik Montgomery/AFP/Getty Images
Topics Pollution
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