TION RSERUMSVIKEN PROJECT AMINA DECONT - vastervik.se · 2015-10-08 · ENGLISH TRANSLATION: Roger...

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PUBL I SHED BY: Chief Executive’s Department, Municipality of VästervikTEXT, PHOTOGRAPHY AND GRAPHICS: Thorsten Jansson/Miljöreportage, FärjestadenENGLISH TRANSLATION: Roger Tanner, Ordväxlingen ABDESIGN AND EDITING: Karl-Eric Persson Media, FärjestadenPRINTING: AB C O Ekblad & Co, Västervik, 2004

Contents

3 Örserumsviken transformed4–5 Unprocessed effluent

5 Foetal injuries from water in the bay6–7 The old clean-up ...

7 ... and the model for the new one8–9 Ecotoxin collection technically complicated

9 Many problems along the way10–11 Eco-monitoring continues

11 National environmental objectives demanded rehabilitation of Örserumsviken

12–13 Cleansing a national asset14–15 Kalmar County – an ecological big spender

2 · The Örserumsviken Project

This publication tells the story of how Ör-serumsviken, the bay outside Västervik,

was transformed from a badly polluted armof the sea to a reborn, pristine habitat as partof the national campaign for a non-toxicenvironment.

One of Sweden’s biggest-ever clean-upshas rid the bay of 65 years’ ecotoxic emis-sions from the Westervik papermill.

Work began in 1994, with the VästervikEnvironment and Health Protection Officecommissioning a pilot study concerningpossible after-treatment of the bay. The gi-gantic clean-up ended in the spring of 2004with the planting of trees and shrubs up onthe newly constructed retaining bank bywhich the ecotoxins of the industrial pastwill be kept under lock and key.

So there it lies, all the detritus which ittook so many years to extract from off theseabed - relics of an industrial undertaking

which began in 1915 and continued until1980. Eventually the emissions formed abottom layer which, together with the paper-mill’s old fibre depot at the head of the bay,was estimated to include 750 kg mercury,1,400 kg PCB and hundreds of kilos of otherpollutants, polycyclic aromatic hydrocar-bons (PAHs) among them.

The comprehensive environmental studies(2001-2003) preceding the clean-up showedthat the ecotoxins from the papermakingperiod had slowly leeched out through the

strait linking the bay with the Baltic, at arate of some 200 g mercury and 400 g PCBannually. Given the amounts remaining onthe seabed, Örserumsviken could go on pol-luting the Baltic for hundreds of years tocome.

But most of the near-incomprehensiblequantities of ecotoxins from the area havenow been sealed beneath a protective layerof several different materials inside a stoutretaining bank. PCB, mercury and PAHs, inother words, have been moved to a safer

repository, and one of the most heavily pol-luted bays on the east coast of Sweden hasbeen radically decontaminated and elimi-nated as a source of Baltic pollution.

Why was the clean-up undertaken? Wasthe MSEK 115 price tag justifiable? There areseveral answers to these questions.

The Västervik archipelago is designated anarea of national interest in Sweden on ac-count of its natural beauty, its scientificinterest and its importance for outdoor rec-reation. Next to it, moreover, is the five-starLysingbadet camping site, an oasis forthousands of summertime holidaymakersfrom near and far.

But above all we are talking about thefuture. Sweden’s Riksdag (parliament) hasresolved, as one of 15 national environmen-tal quality objectives, that our common en-vironment is not to be polluted by toxicsubstances.

The Örserumsviken Project · 3

Örserumsviken transformed

Wastepaper collecting was a regularlyrecurring and popular item on Västervikschool timetables in the 1950s. Newspapersand magazines were proudly delivered to thepapermill in Örserumsviken, and the schoolclasses were then paid a few pence for everykilo collected.

Few people, apart from the workers them-selves, had ever been inside the factory pe-rimeter. Otherwise they could have seen howraw effluent from the mill was beingdischarged straight into the bay. But fewpeople in those days spared a thought for theenvironment.

The effluent contained paper fibres, andwith the passing years these formed progres-sively thicker layers on the seabed. But thefibres also contained substances destined tobe classified among the worst ecotoxins ofour age - mercury and PCB, the latter deno-ting a group of chlorinated substances calledpolychlorinated biphenyls.

It was not known at first how hazardousthese substances were. They were simply partof the papermaking process. For a couple ofdecades, many papermills used mercury to

clear their piping and machinery of algaeand other contaminants which might other-wise cause breakdowns. PCB entered the millwith recycled paper. For a long time it wasused, for example, in printing inks and self-copy paper (aka carbonless copy paper).With one or two brief intermissions, thepapermill remained in operation till 1980, bywhich time Örserumsviken, in terms of eco-toxin quantities, was one of the most heavilypolluted bays on the east coast of Sweden.Environmental stipulations during the mill’s

active history were not very demanding bypresent-day standards. Only in 1954 wastemporary purification of the mill’s effluentintroduced, with the construction of a primi-tive retaining wall, and even this had anopening through which, when the pond wasfull up, effluent could escape into the bay;the pond filled up in about ten years. Thisuntenable situation eventually led to thepapermill being ordered to clean up thebadly polluted bay.

The clean-up, however, was a long time

coming. A water court judgement in 1970allowed the papermill to go on dischargingeffluent into the bay “during a three-yeartrial period”, but by 1976 there could be nomore stalling. A new water court judgementordered the papermill to clean up the innerpart of the bay, and work began in 1978.


For a long time Westerviks PappersbrukAB was one of Västervik’s biggestemployers. The mill produced paper andcardboard from scrap paper brought inby rail. The goods trains passingthrough Västervik loaded with bales ofpaper were a familiar image of the 20thcentury’s unqualified belief in the fu-ture. But there was an environmentalprice tag attached.

Unprocessed effluent

This 1960s air photo shows the papermill area andthe inner part of the heavily polluted Örserums-viken. Insert: a picture of the scrap paper depot.

PHOTO COURTESY OF RIKETS ALLMÄNNA KARTVERK(THE GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEY OFFICE OF SWEDEN).

Bay waterdamaged fish fryPCB and mercury were not the wholelegacy of the papermill in Örserums-viken. The studies also revealed largequantities of substances belonging to agroup of chemical compounds collect-ively known as PAHs. This is one of thelatest and most important environmen-tal research findings.

PAHs is short for polycyclic aromatic hy-drocarbons. These substances are formed, forexample, through incomplete combustion offossil fuels like oil and coal, inefficient woodfiring and smelting of aluminium. Diesel-powered traffic and wood firing are the mainemission sources. Creosote, which for a longtime was used for impregnating wood, alsocontains large quantities of PAHs.

Not all PAHs are toxic, but a considerablenumber of them contain benzene, which iscarcinogenic.

When fish fry in a laboratory environmentwere exposed to water from Örserumsviken,deformities and increased mortality resulted.Studies in the Emån river and elsewherehave yielded similar results, and PAHs aresuspected as part of the reason for some fishspecies having difficulty in reproducing incertain areas along the east coast of Sweden.How did Örserumsviken come to containsuch large amounts of PAH, probably some-thing like 550 kilos? Studies of the bay andof the archipelago beyond revealed muchheavier PAH concentrations in the bay,

which can only mean that the papermill wasresponsible for at least part of the wide-spread propagation of PAHs.

These relatively large quantities may bedue to ash from a coal-fired central heatingplant at the papermill, and perhaps also tonon-recyclable asphalt paper, but a great dealemanates from outside sources. Concentra-tions are often just as high in the watersround big towns and cities.

The Institute of Applied EnvironmentalResearch, Stockholm University, analysed atotal of 18 different PAH compounds inÖrserumsviken, but a lot of research stillremains to be done where PAHs and theirenvironmental effects are concerned.

Laboratory experiments showed water fromÖrserumsviken to cause deformities and increasedmortality among fish fry. This picture shows frywith spinal deformities.

PHOTO COURTESY OF AQUATIC TOXICOLOGY LABORATORY,STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY.

1700 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000

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MercuryPCB*

PCB and mercury in the bottom sediment of Örserumsviken

Industrialisation triggered an accumulation of ecotoxins in the environment. The PCB and mercury concentrations in the above diagram are given innanograms per gram of total solids, but with different scales for the twosubstances. The visible growth of concentrations already from the 1920s onwards, is due to a certain remixing in the sediments.* The study included five types of PCB, which means that concentrations of all known types taken together are roughly four times greater.


Kvicksilver

Mercury is an element which was widely used, e.g.as a chemical pesticide. Farmers in the 1950s usedseed which had been mercury-treated to make itresistant to fungus and insect pests. In the 1960sthe mercury content of dressed seed was found tobe the cause of widespread death, due to mercurypoisoning, among wild birds.

Phenyl mercury was used in the paper and pulpindustry to prevent algal growth in piping andmachinery, and mercury was used as a pulp preser-vative. Mercury began to be used at the Westervikpapermill in the 1950s, and the practice probablylasted until the end of the 1960s.

Mercury, being an element, cannot be destroyedbut has to be isolated to prevent it spreading fur-ther. One serious problem is that mercury can beturned into methyl mercury. This happens when ox-ygen is lacking where the mercury has accumulated,e.g. in fibre banks on the seabed.

PCB

PCB is the collective name for a large group ofchlorinated substances (about 200 in all) formerlyused in many branches of industry and technology,e.g. in glue, jointing compound, oils, glazing putty,paints and certain kinds of paper. Although PCB hadbeen used industrially ever since the 1930s, as apollutant it went unnoticed till 1970.

Salvage paper was used in Västervik throughoutthe papermill’s lifetime, but the fact of its contain-ing PCB was only discovered in the 1980s.

Detailed investigations have shown PCB to be ahighly potent ecotoxin, and it has been given muchof the blame for the severe decline in otter and sealreproduction rates in the Baltic during the 1980s.

Use of PCB was already banned in 1972, but mostof the 1.5 million tonnes of it manufactured world-wide are still loose in the environment or in thecomponents made with it. International surveys,however, have indicated diminishing PCB concen-trations in the Baltic Sea, thanks no doubt to thebanning of the substance.

A – by the standards of its time – com-prehensive decontamination of the innerpart of Örserumsviken began in 1978,the State having obtained a water courtjudgement ordering the new owner,PLM, to clean up the bay after it hadbeen made clear that the fibre bankscontained heavy concentrations ofmercury.

Apart from the important environ-mental objective of collecting the mer-cury, another aim was if possible torecover the paper fibres.

The clean-up carried out in 1978 was similarin certain respects to the major and defini-tive decontamination of Örserumsvikencompleted in 2004. The technique employedon the earlier occasion involved dredging200,000 cu. m. of fibre banks from the innerpart of the bay and pumping it onto dryland, where it went through several process-ing stages. The water was centrifuged offand the fibres deposited inside the enclosureconstructed in the 1950s.

This technique was successful in several re-spects: the fibres and mud pumped ashoreproved to retain more than 90 per cent of themercury, thus achieving the environmentaltarget inscribed in the water court judgement.In addition, more than 600 kg PCB were trap-ped as well, though nobody knew it at thetime – this environmental problem only be-came known a couple of years later. Alto-gether, dredging operations in the bay during1978 and 1979 covered 15 hectares out of atotal of 37. The first step had thus been takentowards a full reinstatement of the wholebay, but it would take until 2001 for a newgeneration of decontamination equipment tobe wheeled onto the site of the old papermill.

PLM, the papermill’s last owner, had ad-vanced plans for trying to recycle the “used”

fibres in the dredging spoil, but in 1980 thecompany decided to close the plant down.

The fibres, and their ecotoxic contents, re-mained on the shore of the bay. Years passed,and the fibre depot was forgotten as it disap-

peared under a pine and birch wood whichcould evidently flourish in the midst of thepollutants. Slowly but surely, however, largequantities of fibres slid into the old pond,aggravating the problem of leeching toxins.


The old tank at the papermill contained a morass,several metres thick, of paper fibres from thewhole of the papermill’s productive career andfrom the 1978-1979 clean-up.

The old clean-up...

Thus far but no further. Entering the fibre tank atthe papermill could have fatal consequences.

Some of the equipment used for the first clean-upoperation was still lying around in 1998.

A clean-up project the size ofÖrserumsviken is much morethan just a clean-up. The prepa-rations are every bit as time-consuming. Under the new En-vironmental Code which enteredinto force in 1999, a dredgingproject on this scale has to beexamined by an environmentalcourt and rules of conduct laiddown for it. The Code also re-quires information to be sup-plied to everyone affected.

A public hearing about the clean-upplans took place in Västervik on11th October 1999, to meet the stat-utory requirement of everyone af-fected being kept informed by meansof “extended consultation”. Accord-ingly, a number of public authoritiesand NGOs (Non-Governmental Or-ganisations) were among those invi-ted to attend the Västervik meeting.They included such central authori-ties as the National Board of Fish-eries, the Swedish EnvironmentalProtection Agency, the SwedishMaritime Administration and theNational Heritage Board. Local orga-nisations such as yachting and boatclubs, fishing associations, birdwatch-ing clubs and archipelago associa-tions were also invited to attend.

It was not until after this consulta-tion that the Municipality of Väster-

vik filed its application with the En-vironmental Court in Växjö, on 13thMarch 2000 in the form of a massivevolume containing detailed accountsof the quantities of ecotoxins to bedisposed of and the decontaminationprocedure to be followed. Schedulesto the application contained an envi-ronmental impact assessment andaccounts of control programmes, de-scribing the environmental monitor-ing procedure to be followed as workprogressed. Altogether the applica-tion ran to over a hundred pages. On20th November 2000 the Environ-mental Court in Växjö, in its capaci-ty as Water Court, delivered judge-ment and defined the terms to whichthe clean-up would be subject. Brief-ly, the judgement permitted the Mu-nicipality of Västervik to dredge200,000 cu. m. sediment and depositthe spoil on the old papermill site in-side a new, reinforced retaining wall.The judgement also required the bayto be blocked with a special textilescreen at the point where it debou-ched into the archipelago. The screenserves as a filter, trapping the parti-cles in the water.

Simultaneously with the WaterCourt’s judgement, a general con-tractor was appointed for the clean-up. The contract went to VägverketProduktion Syd, which in turn enga-ged a number of subcontractors fordifferent parts of the work.


Detailed fields studiesSimplified or in-depth risk assessmentInvestigation of responsibilities and fundingInvestigation of measures and optionsRisk evaluation, with overarching objectives andaction requirements.Investigation with a view to planning/detailed planning.Revision of action requirements, if needed.

Studies of maps and recordsGeneral field studies, with risk classificationInvestigation of responsibilities and funding

PlanningApplication for permits etcAward of contracts

Actions and ongoingenvironmental surveillance

Surveillance programmeEvaluation of workExperience feedback

PILOT STUDY

1994

1995-1998

1998-2000

2001-2004

PREPARATION

IMPLEMENTATION

FOLLOW-UP

MAIN STUDY

Örserumsviken project year

Sequence of operations in a decontamination project

2004-

...and the modelfor the new one

The clean-up operation which started inVästervik in the summer of 2001 wasthe biggest Sweden had ever seen. Workbegan with the construction of a stoutnew retaining wall, five metres highand completely impervious, out towardsÖrserumsviken, at the same time as thebay was cordoned off with a textilescreen to trap the particles present inthe water. A control station was alsoestablished outside the screen, to ensurethat no ecotoxins escaped into the bay.

The Örserumsviken clean-up was based onremoving the uppermost stratum of the bay’sbenthic sediment. This meant extracting an0.8 metre thick layer of mud and fibres with adredger armed with a helical suction nozzle.The dredger was held in position by hawsers

from on shore and its position monitoredwith GPS satellite navigation equipment.From the dredger the slurry was pumpedashore through a floating pipeline and putthrough several processing stages, in which itwas dewatered with the aid of cyclones andbelt filter presses. Finally the water passedthrough a purifying plant and was assayedbefore being released back into the bay. Thedewatered dredging spoil in turn was mixed

with thickener and cement to a suitable con-sistency before being driven to its terminallandfill repository inside the newly construc-ted retaining wall. Admixture of a small pro-portion of cement created a more stable land-fill site with less risk of subsidence.

In this way, during the years that followed,kilo upon kilo of ecotoxins from the bay wassuccessively put under lock and key. At peakefficiency, the benthic slurry removal rate

was something like 500 cu. m. hourly. Tomaintain a consistently high dredging rate, asedimentation tank was constructed ashoreto receive the spoil whenever the belt filterpresses malfunctioned or became overloaded.

Turbidity warningAll the time work was in progress, a checkwas maintained in case the turbidity of thewater became so high that ecotoxins might


GrŠnsš

…rserumsviken

Lysings-badet

VŠstervik

Muddrad yta

Landfill Safety screenduring operations

Retaining wall

Westervikpappermill

Dredged area

Infill

Ecotoxin collectiontechnically complicated

The landfill site built up for the newclean-up operation was covered withbentonite, plastic film, sand and gravel.

The dredger (above, left) in action in the bay. Below it is a sedimentation tank for thedredging spoil. The picture above shows the dewatered screenings being laid up insidethe newly constructed retaining wall.


Many problems along the way

The Örserumsviken clean-up operation presented manytechnical problems which had to be solved as and whenthey arose. The main difficulty was the inadequate capac-ity, or inefficiency, of various parts of the decontamina-tion equipment.

In October 2002, therefore, the Municipality of Väster-vik applied to the Government for an extension of theproject period. Even so, the clean-up turned into a raceagainst time.

The difficulties of coping with pollution in the bay be-gan early on. The Swiss company chosen as subcontractorfor the dredging operation suffered constant reverses inthe matter of getting personnel and plant to the bay ontime. Among other things, a host of permits had to be ob-tained for transporting heavy plant across Europe. Theequipment itself, when finally in position, either brokedown or proved to have insufficient capacity. These prob-lems led the general contractor to appoint a new sub-contractor for the dredging.

From beginning to end, the project was beset with nu-merous technical problems. The first dredger had too littlecapacity. The belt filter presses for dewatering the spoilwere also affected by repeated malfunctions and werefound to have insufficient capacity. More and moremachines were therefore successively deployed.

Progressively greater resources were mobilised as itbecame clear that time margins for the operation werediminishing. Necessity being the mother of invention, in-novative solutions were found to many problems. For ex-ample, a piste machine was rented from a ski slope in theautumn of 2002, after several days monsoon rain hadmade it impossible for the dewatered dredging spoil tobe moved out with ordinary dumpers and wheel loaders.Other solutions included dredging the shores with a spe-cially equipped, shallow-draught working boat from Flat-holmen in the archipelago. A long-reach excavator withan 18-metre arm became another conspicuous ingredientof the Örserumsviken plant line-up.

Dredger Sedimentationtank

Sediment

Landfill

Dewateringinbelt filter press

Purification plant

Explanatory sketch of the dredging technique employed in …rserumsviken

be escaping from the bay. All data werestored at a special gauging station whichwas always directly accessible from the mu-nicipal environment protection office. Thestation had an in-built warning systemwhich sounded the alarm if dredging wascausing excessive turbidity. All the timedredging was in progress, water sampleswere taken and analysed for toxin content.

Dredging was not confined to the bottom ofthe bay. Special shallow-draught machineswere used to clear the shores of reeds andcontaminated sediment, and a small channelwas excavated to reinstate the little island,Karins Holme, off the southern shore of thebay.

The project suffered serious delays, formany reasons, but dredging operations were

successfully concluded in the summer of2003, by which time almost 200,000 cu. m.contaminated benthic sediment had been re-moved from the bay. Later, in the autumn,the inlet screen was removed and work con-centrated on properly covering over thedredging spoil. The whole operation endedin spring 2004 with the planting of trees andshrubs on top of the new retaining wall.

A special shallow-draught boat was used for in-shore operations.

The rehabilitation of Örserumsviken isbeing followed by a comprehensive mo-nitoring programme. Kalmar Universitywill be studying the recovery of life inthe bay following the dredging opera-tions, and the landfill side containing thedredging spoil will be kept under closesurveillance for several years to come.

The dredging operations in Örserumsvikenmeant the removal of several hundred kilosof ecotoxins in the old, fibrous sediments.But how will Nature respond to this clean-up? Will mercury concentrations in pikedecline rapidly or slowly, and what will hap-pen to all the different small creatures?

Kalmar University already had divers inposition to examine the bay when dredgingoperations ended in the autumn of 2003. Sev-eral algal species were found to be ”movingin” on the newly remediated beds. Smallperch and various other small creatures werealso present. But the fish population was con-siderably smaller than before the clean-up.

Natural conditions in Örserumsviken madeit a highly productive fishing ground. Histor-ical documents show that fishing rights inthe 18th century belonged to the Crown, sug-gesting that the fishing here was important.

The University will be studying the bay for6 or 7 years after the clean-up. Two otherbays in the municipality are being studied atthe same time, for purposes of comparison.

Groundwater controlThe large fibre landfill site will also be keptunder close observation. Given the impor-tance of preventing any contaminant leak-age, a special monitoring programme hasbeen designed for this purpose. For the periodending in 2008, the groundwater will bechecked in five different places on andaround the site of the former papermill. Inaddition, several drinking water wells in the

neighbourhood will be investigated. Figuresfrom these studies can then be comparedwith samples taken before the clean-up.

Up on the actual landfill site, where theecotoxins are now shrouded in bentonite,plastic film, sand and other covering layers,a number of pipes project from the ground.These can be used for studying what is goingon down inside the landfill site, whether wa-ter is seeping in and whether the gas whichwill form beneath the cover contains mer-

cury or PCB. These checks will also continueuntil 2008. The environmental quality objec-tives defined in the water court judgementfor the clean-up require transport of PCBand mercury from the bay to the coast out-side to diminish by 90 and 70 per cent re-spectively. The judgement also requires at-mospheric immissions of these substances tobe reduced by no less than 99 per cent. Thechecks carried out in the next few years willshow whether or not the target is achieved.


Eco-monitoring continues

Developments down among the paperfibres can be studied through a well andthrough a number of pipes in the land-fill site. Items for measurement includegaseous emissions and subsidence.

Many field trips occurred during the project.Here visitors are being shown over the gaugingstation for monitoring the bay’s turbidity.

The reinstatement of Örserumsviken is afurther step towards achieving Sweden’senvironmental quality objectives. In1999 the Swedish Riksdag (parliament)adopted 15 such national quality objec-tives for environmental quality. The de-contamination of Örserumsviken toucheson several of these, and above all on thecreation of a non-toxic environment.

The spending of taxation revenue on envi-ronmental remediation often comes in forcriticism, one widespread view being thattoxins are “best left alone”. But this is out ofkeeping with the 15 national environmentalquality objectives resolved on by the Riks-dag, which in turn form part of a widerEuropean perspective.

All three of the environmental clean-upsso far undertaken in the county have virtu-ally halted the spread of ecotoxins into theBaltic Sea from the sources concerned. Everyyear, between 3 and 5 kg PCB – containing,moreover, the extremely hazardous sub-stance dioxin – was escaping from Järnsjönlake in the Municipality of Hultsfred. Decon-tamination of the Jungnerholmarna islandshas curbed seepage of cadmium, lead andnickel into Kalmarsund. And the Örserums-viken clean-up has ended escapes of mer-cury and PCB, as well as a large number ofPAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons).

“Environmental clean-ups have to beviewed in the longer term,” says Tommy

Hammar, the County Administrative Board’sexpert adviser on decontamination opera-tions, with reference to the long-term returnon expenditure.

“We know today that, with every day thatpasses, toxic substances are being dissipatedin our habitat and are also reaching humans.

“So catching hold of the toxins while they

remain in large quantities in limited areas,like Örserumsviken, is a race against time.

“Time will show the big clean-ups to havebeen money well spent.

“At the end of the day, we’re talking aboutcreating the sustainable society, whichmeans the achievement of quality of life forour own and future generations.”


Christer Ramström, sub-project leader forenvironmental control, sounds the depth ofthe water after dredging operations in theinner bay.

Kalmar University will be studying the recove-ry of flora and fauna in the bay following theclean-up.

National environmental objectives demanded rehabilitation

The national environ-mental quality objectives

At least five of Sweden’s 15 nationalenvironmental quality objectives (un-derscored below) are touched on by clean-up operations in the county. Brie-fly, the environmental quality objectivesare as follows.

1. Reduced Climate Impact 2. Clean Air 3. Natural Acidification Only4. A Non-Toxic Environment5. A Protective Ozone Layer 6. A Safe Radiation Environment 7. Zero Eutrophication8. Flourishing Lakes and Streams9. Good-Quality Groundwater

10. A Balanced Marine Environment, 11. Thriving Wetlands 12. Sustainable Forests13. A Varied Agricultural Landscape 14. A Magnificent Mountain Landscape15. A Good Built Environment

The environmental quality objectives are concerned with qual-ity of life.

The Jungnerholmarna islands in the Municipality of Mönsteråswere transformed from contaminated industrial land to beau-tiful walking country.


The rehabilitation of Örserumsvikenconstitutes a new step towards a cleanerenvironment in an area classed amongplaces of national interest for naturalbeauty/scientific interest, culture andrecreation. Lysingsbadet and the Korpa-holmarna islands, with one of Sweden’sbiggest five-star camping sites, are rightnext to Örserumsviken.

In the County Administrative Board’s con-spectus of areas of outstanding scientificinterest and natural beauty, the Västervikarchipelago comes among the highest-classi-fied (class 1) areas in the County of Kalmar.The publication Natur i östra Småland con-tains the following description of the archi-pelago:

“The archipelago is extremely manifoldand varied, blessed with natural beautyand attraction and offering excellent op-portunities for boating, bathing, canoeing,fishing and studies of the natural andman-made environment. Every year thearchipelago is visited by boat tourists intheir tens of thousands, especially alongthe very busy shipping lane off the eastcoast. There are also many suitable placesfor land-based outdoor recreation.”Geologically, too, the Västervik archipe-

lago is of outstanding interest because of itsmixture of younger and very old rocks, theoldest being quartzites which have existedfor nearly 2.5 billion years. The archipelagoalso bears distinct traces of the retreating icecap, in the form of smooth slabs of rock andglacial striations. And in past millennia thesea has formed remarkable end moraines andshingle fields.

Hunting and fishingThe archipelago is also of great antiquity asa settlement and source of livelihood for the

coastal population. The oldest signs of hu-man presence date from the Stone Age,when people lived by hunting and fishing.To this day, the archipelago and inlets of theTjust area remain dotted with Bronze Ageburial cairns.

The Västervik archipelago has been travers-ed by important shipping routes ever sincemedieval times. Spårö is mentioned in a ship-ping route description from the 13th century.

The whitewashed beacon at Spårösund stillguards this ancient shipping lane.

Right down to the second half of the 20thcentury, the archipelago still had a large per-manent population living by archipelagicfarming and fishing. Many islands have beencontinuously inhabited since the 16th cen-tury and, with their archipelago villages,rank today among the jewels of the eastcoast heritage.

The worst centuryFor a long time, however, the quality of thewater in this archipelago has been graduallydeteriorating, owing to large-scale changesof human lifestyle - more specifically, to in-dustrialisation, migration to the towns andcities, agricultural mechanisation and thegrowth of motorism in the countries sur-rounding the Baltic Sea.

Cleansing a national assetThe decontamination of Örserumsviken serves to enhance the water quality of an archipelago area with Lysingebadet at its centre.


The rare narrow-leaved helleborineorchid grows on several of the ar-chipelago islands.

Örserumsviken has an abundance of birdlife. The greatcrested grebe, for example, is very much at home here.

The Västervikarchipelago is a geologytextbook come to life.PICTURE:veined gneissin the outerarchipelago.

The Västervikarchipelagowas alreadytraversed byshipping lanesin medievaltimes. SpåröBeacon over-looks a ship-ping lane dat-ing from the13th century.

Purple loose-strife and white sticky catchfly (Silene viscosa) flourish in Stora Betskäret, one of the outposts of the Västervik archipelago.


Kalmar County is going through a purg-ing bath on the grand scale. The envi-ronmental situation has been improvedthrough a succession of major clean-upprojects of which Örserumsviken is thelatest to have been accomplished. Butthe map of buried ecotoxins shows howmuch remains to be done in an old in-dustrial county. Thirty of the most heav-ily contaminated areas will together costbetween MSEK 2,000 and 3,000 to de-contaminate.One of Sweden’s first big clean-up projectsbegan in 1993-1994, when Järnsjön lake inthe Municipality of Hultsfred was cleansedof 400 kg PCB from the Nyboholm papermillin the County of Jönköping. This was doneby means of suction dredging, and the con-taminated spoil was deposited on a landfillsite near the lake.

The results of the clean-up quickly becamenoticeable. Two years afterwards, PCB con-centrations in fish from the lake had fallenby half. Järnsjön being part of the greatEmån river network, the clean-up also help-ed to reduce emissions of mercury and PCBinto the coastal waters of Kalmarsund.

Another big step towards decontaminatingthe Emån river and Kalmarsund was taken in

the next major decontaminationproject, starting in 1999. On theJungnerholmarna islands in Flise-ryd, production of battery paste forrechargeable accumulators and themelting-down of old lead batterieshad left its mark on the environ-ment. Environmental surveys indi-cated above all the presence of verylarge quantities of cadmium, nickeland lead, both in the river and onthe factory site.

As a result of the clean-up opera-tion, more than 90 per cent of the 35tonnes of cadmium and 900 tonnesof lead in the area were disposed of.This was a technically demandingoperation, due among other thingsto all the old and heavily contam-inated industrial buildings on thesite being classed as environmen-tally hazardous waste.

Today the islands make beautifulwalking country.

Arsenic and mercuryA big decontamination operationstarted in Ruda, in the Municipalityof Högsby, in 2004, aimed at savinga municipal water source from arse-

Decontamination complete

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Decontamination projects in the County of KalmarThe situation in August 2004

Hulingen HultsfredSilverdalenSvartsjöarna lakesJärnsjönJungnerholmarna islandsRudaGlassworks

RasslebygdEmmaboda

SöderåkraEmnaboGladhammars minesÖrserumsvikenOskarshamns harbour

NötöfjärdenEmsforsHagbygärde industrial site

Degerhamn

Lead, mercuryArsenic, lead, creosoteOil, PCBMercuryMercury, PCBCadmium, nickel, zincArsenic, CadmiumArsenik, antimony, lead,cadmiumPCBIn-house investigation byITT Flygt ABMercuryPhenoxy acidsCopper, cobaltMercury, PCB, PAHsCadmium, copper, zinc,nickel and aother metalsMercurySubstances not chartedLead, cadmium,copper, nickel, zinc, oilCadmium

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Kalmar County – an ecologicalbig spender


Production at the Westervik papermill started in 1915 and continued until 1980.This air photo, taken in 1963, shows the mill’s location on Örserumsviken.

PHOTO COURTESY OF KULBACKEN MUSEUM ARCHIVES.

Hulingen, near Hultsfred, is a well-known lake for bird-watching, but there is mercury present here, e.g. from papermills furtherupstream in the Emån river network.

nic, a highly toxic element. Arsenic is presentin the ground as a legacy from an impregnat-ing plant and a glassworks. Here again, someof the toxic substances were able to seep outinto the Emån river through a smaller water-course.

Further upstream in the Emån system is atributary called Pauliströmsån. This passesthrough a stretch of unspoiled Smålandcountryside but has nevertheless been heavilypolluted by emissions. The emissions camefrom further upstream, from the Pauliström

papermill, which used mercury in its produc-tion processes. As a result, two small lakesdownstream, Svartsjöarna (“the Black Lakes”),have received about 250,000 cu. m. mercury-contaminated paper fibre, and the mercuryhas slowly migrated further to the Emån river.

There are also many areas along the coun-ty coast which have been heavily polluted byindustrial activity. Örserumsviken was oneof them. Things were even worse in the poolof Oskarshamn harbour, which contains near-ly all of the most notorious heavy metals.

Ships entering and leaving the harbour arehelping to spread these metals out to sea.

Race against timeEach county has been tasked by the Environ-mental Protection Agency with listing the 30areas which it considers most urgently inneed of remediation. The cost of the clean-ups hitherto accomplished and planned inthe County of Kalmar is now estimated atbetween MSEK 2,000 and 3,000.

“This is not to say that the County of

Kalmar is more polluted than other count-ies,” says Tommy Hammar of the KalmarCounty Administrative Board, “but we havea longer coastline and our watercourses pickup pollutants from inland.”

“Then again, we were early starters atidentifying our environmental problems.”

“Our county has made quite considerableheadway, because we started with reallyheavy assignments like Järnsjön lake, theJungnerholmarna islands, Örserumsvikenand the Ruda industrial site.”

Industrial emissions from the Pauliström papermill have contaminated the Upperand Lower Svartsjöarna lakes in the Municipality of Hultsfred.

AIR PHOTO COURTESY OF MUNICIPALITY OF HULTSFRED.

www.vastervik.se/miljo/orserum

Many steps to be taken• In 1994 the Västervik Municipal Environment and HealthProtection Office carried out a pilot study of possible meth-ods for after-treatment of the benthic sediment of Örse-rumsviken. The pilot study was sent to the County Adminis-trative Board, which in turn gave priority to Örserumsviken inthe conspectus it forwarded to the Environmental ProtectionAgency concerning important after-treatment projects in theCounty of Kalmar.• In 1995 the Kalmar County Administrative Board received agrant of MSEK 3 from the Environmental Protection Agency,partly for an investigation of responsibility for the pollutionand an assessment of the risk of PCB and mercury spreadinginto the surroundings. The County Administrative Board in-vited the Municipality of Västervik to take over the grant fromthe Environmental Protection Agency and run the project. TheMunicipal Executive Board appointed a steering committeeand project group whose members included representatives ofthe Environmental Protection Agency and the County Admin-istrative Board as well as the Municipality. A succession ofreports and surveys was compiled between 1996 and 1998.• In the autumn of 1998 the Municipality of Västervik ap-plied to the Ministry of the Environment for a State grantunder the local investment programme. The Municipality’srequest for MSEK 68 in State aid towards the clean-up wasgranted by the Government on 8th April 1999.• On 31st May 1999 the Municipal Executive Board resolvedto go ahead with the Örserumsviken project and appointed asteering group to decide how the project was to be organisedand to allocate the necessary resources. A host of surveyswere inaugurated in the autumn of 1999, aimed at chartingthe environmental situation in the bay, and a comprehensiveprogress of planning and investigation was started. The 1999studies showed the ecotoxins to be more widely distributedthan had previously been known, and the project also provedmore expensive than anticipated. An additional grant of MSEK40 was therefore made by the Environmental ProtectionAgency.• Dredging and landfill contracts were awarded in the sum-mer of 2000. The main contract was signed in November2000.• The practical task of decontamination began in the springof 2001 and was completed in the autumn of 2003. Certainsupplementary works were undertaken in the spring of 2004.These included the planting of trees and shrubs on the land-fill site.

Summer evening in the Västervik archipelago. Stora Björkskär.

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TION RSERUMSVIKEN PROJECT AMINA DECONT - vastervik.se · 2015-10-08 · ENGLISH TRANSLATION: Roger...

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Transcript of TION RSERUMSVIKEN PROJECT AMINA DECONT - vastervik.se · 2015-10-08 · ENGLISH TRANSLATION: Roger...