Large amounts of sludge in Lærdalselva – fear for life in the river – news Vestland

One of Norway’s best salmon rivers suddenly turned gray on Wednesday this week. Chairman Jens Olav Flekke of the organization Redd wildaksen calls the incident an “environmental disaster”. He fears that the consequence will be that the fish in the river will die. – What has been released here has nothing to do with a river. The fish that were hatched this year may die. The spawn may have been wasted. Lærdalselven is already vulnerable. This summer the river is closed to salmon fishing. – If an entire cohort is lost, then it is something that will be noticed for a long time to come. VG mentioned the stone mud first. Jens Olav Flekke in Save the wild salmon calls the incident an “environmental disaster”. Photo: Privat – Done things that have worked Norsk Grønnkraft AS is building a power plant in Lærdal. The incident occurred when the drilling mud was to be deposited. When the sludge was placed in a pool, the wall broke. This meant that the sludge found its way to an old concrete pipe, and then into the river. This is usually how Lærdalselva looks like. The picture is from early June. Photo: Norwegian salmon rivers – We did things that have worked in the past. In the light of hindsight, we could have done even more in advance, says general manager Rune Skjevdal of Norsk Grønnkraft AS. The power company itself believes that there is a question of 10 to 15 cubic meters of rock, while Redd the wild salmon fears it could be as much as 40 cubic meters. Flekke does not buy that the incident was an accident, but believes the pollution is due to carelessness. – Accidents must not happen in this context. Then you have to stop giving approval. It is completely unacceptable, he says. Have received a report In Lærdal, the police have been out and looked at what has happened to the river. They cannot currently say much about the case, but police prosecutor Trygve Ritland from the West Police District confirms to news that it has received a report about the conditions. Furthermore, Ritland says that the police will carry out investigations and assessments about what may have happened to the river. – About what has happened, why and whether something criminal has happened, says the police attorney.



ttn-69