Randers
“You see pieces of metal? They used to be roadside barriers,” says Karen Balling Radmercommunications manager of the municipality of Randers.
Balling Radmer points towards the area where the Nordic Waste company, which deals with industrially contaminated land, was located. Bent roadside railings lie about twenty meters away from the middle of the mud.
There is no more road. It has been covered by a landslide, which is creating the most serious man-made environmental disaster in Danish history. Now the state authorities are trying to find out who is responsible for the disaster.
On the left the landscape is bordered by a green meadow. On the right, the terrain has turned into mud. The brown slope rises high in a curve. There are large pools of water at its foot.
Excavators pile brown soil onto trucks that drive the loads away. The closed area is guarded by a municipal employee in a white container.
We walk on a path covered with metal sheets deeper and deeper into the middle of the area covered by the landslide.
Karen Balling Radmer, communications manager of the Randers municipality, thinks it is good that the municipality informs about the landslide events as openly as possible.
Helsingin sanomat newspaper told at the end of January, that contaminated soil is flowing towards the Alling Å river and the small village of Ølst in Central Jutland, Denmark.
Heavy rains moved up to 6,000,000 tons of contaminated soil in the area of the Nordic Waste company. The amount corresponds to approximately 300,000 trucks.
In itself, the site was suitable for the treatment of contaminated land. Danish A politician-lehti says that in 1953, a company was founded on the hills south of the village of Ølst, which mined clay from the soil.
By 2015, all loose clay had been excavated and a pit about 40 meters deep was located there. The county of Aarhus considered the area to be suitable for storing contaminated soil, for example, because the clay material left in the soil would protect toxins from being absorbed into the groundwater.
In addition, there were plans to build a pond and plant trees so that nature's own park would slowly grow on the spot.
The trucks transport the contaminated soil away from the area where the Nordic Waste company, which handles industrially contaminated soil, was previously located.
Then in April 2018, the environmental technology company Nordic Waste started operating there. It processes contaminated soil material produced by industry and cleans it into sand and gravel, which can be used, for example, in the production of concrete.
After the first loss-making year, the company made a profit until the first quarter of 2023.
Last December On the 11th, the Nordic Waste company published a press release in which it told about a landslide in the company's territory.
Already at that time, many of the company's buildings were damaged. In October, the company had to blow up a 50-meter-high chimney in its area, which threatened to collapse due to a landslide.
Now Nordic Waste has left the place. Most of the company's buildings have been demolished due to the landslide.
Randers Karen Balling Radmer, the municipality's communications manager, began her career at the turn of the year. He has been explaining the mud disaster over and over.
“I haven't been able to take a day off,” he says. Now he takes us to see a landslide.
On January 19, Nordic Waste announced that it would file for bankruptcy, and on January 22, the bankruptcy court of the city of Randers declared the company bankrupt. The responsibility for cleaning up the landslide was transferred to the municipality of Randers.
At first, the situation seemed quite bad.
“During the Christmas holidays, the contaminated land slid at a rate of about nine meters per day towards the village of Ølst and the river Alling Å,” says Balling Radmer.
The narrow river flows towards the Randers fjord and from there towards the Kattegat sea area between the Jutland peninsula and Sweden. But now it buckles past the landslide in large pipes.
Shoe soles turn from mud to lumps. We step in a sticky mass towards the center of the landslide area, where the brown earth turns into brown water.
The Alling Å river is now cut off. Between the river and the polluted rainwater, a three-meter-wide dam made
of earth has been built. The big water pumps rumble.
The welders hired by the municipality stood knee-deep in mud on Christmas Eve and built a pipe system on the site, which would allow the river to be transported past the landslide.
Initially, the pipes were supposed to be dug under the Gammel Århusvej road, so that the road would protect the pipes and maintain a direct connection between Aarhus, the village of Ølst and the municipality of Randers.
However, the workers noticed a tiny crack in the road, two centimeters wide and about 30 centimeters long, at the landslide. In twelve hours, the crack had torn to a width of about two meters.
Now all that remains of the road are twisted railings.
The Alling Å river currently flows in pipes past the contaminated land.
Christmas and and in the days between the new year, the Danish Minister of the Environment Magnus Heunicke visited the area destroyed by the earthquake.
He called the event one of the most serious environmental threats at the moment, says the Danish Broadcasting Company
Dr
.
Even at that time, the minister promised Randers municipality legal and environmental help and emphasized that Nordic Waste and the insurance companies must pay for the consequences of the landslide.
However, it turned out that there were deficiencies in the inspections and risk assessments made by the municipality of Randers in the Nordic Waste company's area. Published by DR in pictures it can be seen that the landslide had already caused the collapse of the Nordic Waste company's buildings in the area in the summer of 2023. The municipal authorities had carried out inspections in the area, but they did not warn about the possibility of a large landslide.
At the end of January, the municipality admitted that it had carried out inspection work errors.
Several The municipal councilors asked the municipal administration a year ago in February whether a risk assessment of a possible landslide had been made in connection with Nordic Waste's new environmental permit application.
One of the questioners was the municipal councilor of Randers Frida Valbjørn Christensen.
According to Valbjørn Christensen, the municipality did carry out the required inspections, but they were not thorough enough. The municipal authorities knew that too much contaminated soil had been brought into the area compared to its surface area, says Valbjørn Christensen.
“Already at the beginning of 2023, we gathered a group of municipal councilors who warned the municipal administration about possible landslides, but the municipality did not react to it.”
Municipal councilor Frida Valbjørn Christensen warned the municipal government about possible landslides as early as the beginning of 2023.
However, Valbjørn Christensen believes that the Nordic Waste company has the main responsibility for the landslide.
“They saw the events first and it is their responsibility to react to them,” says Valbjørn Christensen.
However, according to him, now it is also necessary to investigate the municipality's role in the case, so that similar damages can be prepared for in other Danish municipalities as well.
The municipal councilor's biggest concern is Alling Å, which currently does not flow freely but in pipes. According to him, it might affect the ecosystem of the entire region.
The dam limits the entry of polluted water into the river Alling Å.
Nordic Waste the land that collapsed in the area was the first to be taken by the municipality of Randers of samples including slightly contaminated.
Mildly polluted soil contains, for example, nickel-containing heavy metals and PAH compounds.
However, according to later samples, part of the land could be classified as “contaminated”. According to the samples, almost half of the samples taken from the soil in the area contained, for example, heavy hydrocarbons.
When from the landslide site, walk about ten minutes to the north, arrive at the small village of Ølst. The place resembles the scenery of a drama series set in the countryside. The houses are nice and the fences are neatly squared.
From far behind, the heavy rumble of excavators can be heard and the air smells like concrete.
The smell comes from the so-called “microfiller”, which Nordic Waste has used to solidify the soil, says a person who has lived in the village of Ølsti since 2009 Jan Kristian Jensen.
The substance from cement production contains, for example, heavy metals.
According to the residents of the village of Ølst, dust has been floating in the village. The residents of the village are worried about the health of their children, for example.
Jan Kristian Jensen has lived in the village of Ølst with his family since 2009.
“Are here as prisoners,” says Jensen.
The activities of the Nordic Waste company raised concerns among the residents of the village even before the landslide. According to Jensen, during the past two years, the transportation of contaminated soil to the area increased significantly.
“At one point, a truck passed by the village once every 20 seconds,” says Jensen.
Jensen, who works at Aarhus University, is convinced that the landslide could have been prevented. According to him, researchers have known for a long time that clay-based soil is suitable for landslides.
According to Jensen, until the beginning of the year, the residents were not separately informed about what was happening on the Nordic Waste company's plot.
“We read the news and heard that according to reports, the village might be covered by a landslide,” says Jensen.
The villagers were able to visit the area on the 28th. January. However, according to Jensen, real risk assessments of the danger of the residential area for the residents have not been done so far.
“The area is beautiful and we have a great time here. We wouldn't want to move, but of course the situation is different if living here might endanger my child's health, for example,” says Jensen.
Jensen hopes that the landslide will be brought under control and the residents will be able to stay in their homes. However, he thinks that repairing and cleaning the area will continue at least until the end of his life.
The village of Pittoreski Ølst is located a short walk from the landslide area.
The municipality of Randers has spent 100 million Danish kroner, or about 13 million euros, to clean up the area. The municipality's annual budget is 9 billion kroner, or about 1.2 billion euros.
Cleaning costs can reach up to 2.2 billion kroner. The municipality of Randers demands that Nordic Waste immediately pay them the 100 million kroner already spent on road cleaning.
of Denmark the parliament has set aside 205 million kroner, or about 27 million euros, for cleaning the area.
The major owner of the Nordic Waste company is a multi-billionaire Torben Østergaard-Nielsen. On Thursday, February 1, the East Jutland police told Randers municipality prepared a criminal complaint against the Nordic Waste company.
At the same time running is statement also the responsibilities of the municipality of Randers.
On Monday February 5, Randers village stopped transportation of contaminated soil from the area for the time being. The landslide has slowed down, and the municipality is not allowed to do more than necessary under the Environmental Protection Act.
“We are now trying to monitor the situation for a week, without transporting land from the area,” says communications manager Karen Balling Radmer.
The municipality has established an authority that takes care of cleaning the large rainwater reserves accumulated in the area. The water basins dug in the area have also been emptied in case of future rains.
“Right now we are anxiously following the weather forecast,” says Balling Radmer.
Rain is expected in Randers for the weekend. The rains may accelerate the speed of the landslide.
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