For two weeks, activists acted to stop the groundwork for the controversial mining facility at Førdefjorden. When the link actions on Engebø were completed this spring, the Nature Conservation Association announced that they would take legal action against the state to have the decision reversed, which gives Nordic Mining a license for mining with a fjord landfill. The nature and environmental protection organization has now taken the threats seriously, and together with the environmental protection organization Nature and Youth, they are suing the state. – It is a very big decision. It is a great risk for an environmental organization to go to court, says Truls Gulowsen, leader of the Nature Conservation Association. My license has been granted on the wrong basis Norway is one of two countries in the world that allowed mining dumping in the sea. The other country is Papua New Guinea. The EU’s mineral waste directive, which was incorporated into Norwegian law in 2012, required that measures to minimize waste must be “an integral part of the planning process” (see fact box). The reason why the organizations are now suing is that they believe that the state gave the mining company Nordic Mining a permit for a sea landfill in Førdefjorden without having to find out about other and more environmentally friendly solutions first. EU Mineral Waste Directive According to the EU Mineral Waste Directive, a plan for waste management must be drawn up, where waste minimization must be an integral part of the process. This has not happened in the planned mining projects at Førdefjorden and Repparfjord. In a letter to the Ministry of Climate and the Environment, ESA points out that the mining companies Nordic Mining and Nussir did not submit a waste management plan before they were granted a discharge permit in 2015 and 2016, and that such plans have not been prepared as part of the following operating licenses. As of 4 May 2022, these plans have not yet been delivered. – The ministry has started the process at the wrong end and therefore landed on the wrong result, says Gulowsen in the Nature Conservation Association. The organizations therefore believe that decisions that have been permitted in recent times have taken place as a consequential error of a permit that should not have been granted in the first place. The aim of the lawsuit is to prevent the mining company Nordic Mining from being allowed to dump 250 million tonnes of mining waste in the Førdefjord. – Dumping such large amounts of mining sludge in a national salmon fjord will destroy life in the fjord. This is one of the major environmental protection issues in Norway today, says Gina Gylver, leader in Nature and Youth. This is what it looked like when Nature and Youth took action against a fjord landfill in Engebø this spring. Photo: AMANDA IVERSEN ORLICH / Nature and youth Nordic Mining not worried The lawsuit does not scare the company, which potentially has to face the consequences. Daily leader in Nordic Mining, Ivar Fossum, says they are not worried that this will have any consequences for them: – The state has done an exceptionally thorough and comprehensive job to give us the licenses we have received, so that this should get some consequences for us I see no risk of. I’m not worried at all. Fossum in Nordic Mining also does not agree that the license granted leads to environmentally harmful consequences. – We look forward to producing perhaps the world’s most climate – friendly mineral from the project in Førdefjorden. Ivar Fossum in Nordic Mining thinks the lawsuit will not have any consequences for them. Photo: Vidar Gudvangen / news Both Naturvernforbundet and Natur og Ungdom are nevertheless optimistic that the lawsuit will go through. They mean to be able to appear for a license granted without good legal reason, and that these should therefore be regarded as invalid. – We have received advice from good lawyers who support us in that it is entirely possible to stop this in court and change the license, says Gulowsen.
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Take the state to court to stop the fjord landfill – news Vestland
