Improved conditions in the environment ruling

At the beginning of the year came the long awaited environmental judgment from the Environmental Court relating to the fuel port of Södertälje. Although the environmental final judgment was regarded as a success, Port of Södertälje chose to appeal against certain parts of the ruling. The final version has now been approved and dredging work can be started.

The port has now won a judgment that is closely in line with the original application that includes conditions that contribute to port expansion that can be performed in a more controlled and environmentally friendly way. The revised conditions were regarding how dredging work would be implemented how much of dredging waste could be dumped and covered over at sea.

– We chose to appeal those parts of the judgment that we deemed as unreasonable, says Tomas Zackrisson, environment manager at Port of Södertälje. We now have the conditions that are in line with the Mälaren project and that we are happy about.

Dredging will be undertaken with the utmost care using a technique that minimizes the negative environmental impact. Slightly-contaminated dredged waste material will be deposited in deep burrows in the sea and then covered with clean soil. At the same time, the underlying large amounts of polluted masses that have been on the site for decades will be covered.

– What we put into the sea will not minimize our goal of maintaining a good status of the water or meeting the environmental quality standards, ensures Tomas. On the contrary, they will rather improve conditions as the waste-filled holes will then be covered with clean dredged material.

For the Port of Södertälje the final judgment means that some of the larger planned dredging work can begin soon after the New Year. This is something that has long been requested by the port’s fuel customers who look forward to increasing their fuel volumes.