Region Midtjylland may inherit Cheminova cleanup

Region Midtjylland may eventually have to take responsibility for the severe soil and groundwater pollution at the FMC Rønland factory site, DR reports. The company, formerly known as Cheminova, plans to stop production and close the plant at the end of 2027.

“It will be a huge task if the region has to take it on. As far as I know, we have not seen anything of this scale in Denmark,” said Morten Bondgaard, head of Region Midtjylland’s soil pollution office.

No agreement on who will take over

FMC currently handles the cleanup voluntarily. It pumps up polluted groundwater and treats it at a purification plant to prevent contamination from reaching the surrounding environment and affecting the fjord.

The company will continue the work after the factory closes. However, Bondgaard said it would be unrealistic to expect FMC to maintain the voluntary effort indefinitely.

“We must also be prepared for someone to continue operating the work,” he said.

The region has been in talks with FMC for a long time and has detailed knowledge of how the contamination is pumped and treated. But FMC has so far carried out, managed and paid for the work.

“If the task eventually becomes ours, it will be a completely different responsibility,” Bondgaard said.

Massive pollution remains

The pollution at Rønland arose from the factory’s operations and waste handling from the 1960s onwards. Several investigations have been carried out, and pollution and waste deposits have been removed over the years. The site is still considered to be heavily contaminated.

FMC currently pumps up about 200,000 cubic metres of polluted groundwater each year. The water is treated and discharged into the North Sea along with the factory’s other wastewater. The pumping is intended to prevent pollution from spreading from Rønland to the surrounding environment.

Hopes for a new future

Trine Rønn, a local SF politician in Lemvig Municipality, described the cleanup as one of the most important tasks ahead.

“We have more than 400 people who will lose their jobs, and after the New Year we will lack someone to operate the measures needed to pump up this polluted groundwater, so that our sea and fjord are not poisoned by these old pollutants,” she said.

Rønn said she would feel some relief when jobs and a solution for continuing the pollution controls were secured after seven decades with what she called Northern Europe’s largest poison factory in the area’s backyard.

She entered local politics because of Cheminova and the effects of its operations. She now hopes the factory site can be given a new purpose after the closure.

“It is in many ways a very special site, probably the only one in Denmark, and perhaps in Northern Europe, with a three-kilometre safety zone around it,” Rønn said.