A mountain of toxic ‘Black Snow’ scraped from local town streets and dumped next to 90% of Oslo’s water supply at Lake Maridal (Maridalsvannet) didn’t please Låkeberget’s residents one bit.
Låkeberget locals watched nervously as City Environment deposited large amounts of the black snow in a parking lot within distance of Lake Maridal’s defined water boundaries.
Soon after, telephones started ringing at Water & Waste-water services (W&W) from town citizen’s, reporting their concern over a potential danger to the water supply.
ILLEGAL DUMPING
Alerted W&W officials acted promptly on Thursday, 22 Feb. to end the illegal snow dumping activities.
‘… they (seemed) willing to break laws.’ said Peter M.,a local resident of NTB city environment.
CEASE OPERATIONS
LEA rep. Line Holand confirmed W&W’s request to cease operations;’We were contacted by W&W on 22 Feb., and asked not to continue our temporary snow storage at Låkeberget. We’ve complied with their request and have completely stopped snow storage at this location.’
TOXIC RUNOFF
Holand offers LEA’s position, stating; ‘At Låkeberget, we use (nature’s) low air temperatures to maintain our loss prevention efforts against potential toxic runoff.’
‘Låkeberget’s storage area was intended as a temporary, stop-gap measure. However, I clearly see the concerns of the local residents over water purity.’ -states Holand.
NO CONTAMINATION TO WATER SUPPLY
W&W Communications Manager Trond Ottersen indicated LEA willing compliance. ‘They’ve posted a plan to remove the storage piles. We simply can’t allow a serious, potential threat to the water supply.’
‘Fortunately, there’s been no contamination.’, assured W&W’s Ottersen.
Låkeberget’s Black Snow is slated for removal today, Friday, 23 Feb. to Rådhuskaia.
Lake Maridal is located at Maridalen, Oslo, Norway, and is the largest lake within Oslo. The lake provides 90% of Oslo’s potable water.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
