Summary and conclusions, Miljøstyrelsen

Depotredegørelse om affaldsdepotområdet 1999

Summary and conclusions

In 1999, an additional 49 contaminated sites were registered in Denmark. 100 contaminated sites were deregistered, and 80 sites released for specific use. As per 31 December 1999 the total number of registered contaminated sites in Denmark amounted to 4,940.

Of these 4,940 sites, 1,830 are prioritised sites expected to be included in the public clean-up effort. 617 sites are used for housing or similar, 1,022 are sites threatening the groundwater and situated in particularly valuable water abstraction areas, and the remaining 191 sites are threatening the groundwater, situated in particularly valuable water abstraction areas and used for housing purposes.

Again in 1999, the regional councils have in their surveying prioritised efforts of groundwater protection in particularly valuable water abstraction areas. Thus, 59 per cent of the 491 sites registered in 1999 are located in particularly valuable water abstraction areas, constituting 35 per cent of the area of Denmark. Furthermore, sites used for housing have been given high priority, and they account for 45 per cent of the 491 sites registered in 1999.

By the end of 1999 clean-up had been completed on 1,728 sites comprised by the Act on Contaminated Sites (Act on Waste Deposits), of which 269 in 1999.

The number of remedial action projects financed by the regional councils seem to decrease (a total of 53 in 1999), but economic activity has increased. This may be an indication that remedial action projects on an average have been more costly than in previous years. 40 per cent of all remedial action projects were conducted in houses or institutions. The remaining clean-up projects were distributed evenly among particularly valuable water abstraction areas and areas of no special value for water abstraction.

Reporting on recent contamination incidents shows that contamination still occurs after the time limits laid down in the Act on Contaminated Sites.

For 700 of the 2,260 recent contamination incidents having occurred in the period from 1996 to 1999, no clean-up has been effectuated. Not all of Denmark’s local councils have reported on recent contamination incidents, and the real number of recent incidents is therefore supposed to be higher. Reports indicate that sources causing recent contamination incidents are different in contamination nature from the sources causing contamination comprised by the Act on Contaminated Sites. Particularly the group of sources relating to the storage of oil is very large.

In the entire soil contamination area it is estimated that 1,155 sites were cleaned up in 1999. 79 projects were financed by public funds, 570 sites were subjected to voluntary clean-up (including recent contamination incidents), and 506 sites were cleaned up under other schemes, primarily the scheme of the Danish Oil Industry’s Association for Remediation of Retail Sites. In 1999, approximately DKK 674 million (excluding administration and including privately financed projects) were spent for action relating to soil contamination.

Also in 1999, applications under the land depreciation scheme (Act on Value Loss) were numerous. Approvals were given for DKK 60.5 million. As per 31 December 1999 the waiting list amounted to around DKK 74 million. The land depreciation scheme is now being evaluated, and results will be available by the end of year 2000.

In 1999 thematic reporting on water abstraction wells affected by contamination from contaminated sites has been continued. Reports showed that 97 wells were closed in 1999, mainly because of pesticides, causing 39 closures. One well was closed because it was situated close to an industrial site. The remaining closures were caused by natural water quality problems, technical problems, the occurrence of nitrate, or "source unknown". Sophisticated water treatment was not applied at any water abstraction wells in 1999.

Recommendations from the Contaminated Sites Council

With the new Act on Contaminated Soil, regional and local councils have a better basis for their administration of the soil contamination area. The Contaminated Sites Council has noted that the Act has been followed up by a series of Statutory Orders and will be so also in future.

The Contaminated Sites Council finds it imperative that the planned Statutory Order on registration of mapping results in the land register and the planned guidelines on mapping of contaminated areas, guidance for residents, guidelines on removal of soil and orders for polluters are finalised very fast. The Contaminated Sites Council finds it important that the wording of the guidelines is co-ordinated with the rules of the Danish Environmental Protection Act.

The Contaminated Sites Council furthermore finds it important to strengthen initiatives preventing new soil contamination incidents. Such initiatives should be considered not least in the light of MTBE contamination of groundwater registered recently and contamination from dry-cleaning establishments in operation.