A contractor in Nord-Trøndelag landed in hot water after dumping the remnants of a demolished Coop Prix supermarket beside a walking trail in Kopperå. Environment agency Bellona reported consumer cooperative Trondos and two contractors after the rubble was left on private land without a license.
Bellona said contractor company Sigmund Farstad dumped rubbish including bricks, wood, pipes, wiring, insulation and shop signs after Coop Prix Meråker was demolished during the spring to make way for a new Coop Extra store. Bellona reported Trondos and contractors Hent and Sigmund Farstad to police last week for dumping, reported newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) on Monday.
“The performance that the contractor company has given testifies to the complete lack of responsibility and respect for the applicable regulations,” said Bellona’s waste and recycling adviser, Karl Kristensen. “The waste, which should have been sorted, is dumped mixed together in an illegal nature fill which does not have permission to accept waste at all. It is also unclear whether dangerous waste was dumped as a part of the unsorted waste.”
The Nord-Trøndelag county environment department confirmed it was following up the case, saying the waste never should have been dumped in the area and there was no application to do so. Trondos head Torbjørn Skei said the cooperative had an agreement with Hent that all waste should be handled in an environmentally friendly way, and he had demanded the situation be fixed.
Hent spokesman Kåre Myran said they had hired a contractor, who in turn hired Sigmund Farstad to dispose of the rubble. “The case is very unfortunate,” said Myran. “We are really sorry. Formally the responsibility is with the subcontractor, but we’re now going through our processes.”
“We have tipped around 300 tons of bricks, and that is not damaging to the environment as far as I know,” Arnold Farstad told DN. “In addition there is some wood, polystyrene and insulation. That which is harmful to the environment was delivered where it should. Furthermore, it all lies on our own ground.”
newsinenglish.no staff