Concerns when mud from island construction is dumped in Öresund

Two million tonnes of partially contaminated sludge and mud from the construction of the artificial island of Lynetteholm in Copenhagen are currently being dumped in the Sound. Now criticism is growing in both Denmark and Sweden, where there are concerns about the marine environment.

– I’m afraid that the fish will die and the water will be polluted so we can’t swim here,” Inge-Marete Christoffersson, who lives by the Bay of Köge, near the place where the mud is dumped, tells SR Ekot.

A few kilometres from the dumping sites is the Swedish border and a protected marine Natura 2000 area. Carl Lindqvist, Water Officer at the County Administrative Board of Skåne, warns of the spread to Swedish waters.

– This type of spoil can affect many different organisms in the sea, especially if the spoil is contaminated, which it will be and is.However, the municipal company By & Havn in Copenhagen, which is responsible for the dumping, says that the spoil will not spread to Swedish waters.