The majority of the council members voted against the mayor’s proposal to take the company to court for notoriously polluting Norwegian territory. Instead they want to appoint a working group that will work on political initiatives and solutions to reduce pollution from the smelter in Nikel.
Earlier this week Hansen told BarentsObserver that she wanted the municipal council to back the charges against Norilsk-Nickel. “If nothing else can stop the acid clouds of sulphur dioxide, we’ll take the company to court,” she said.
Hansen is not pleased with the council’s decision: “I am disappointed that we aren’t willing to walk the line and flex muscles. There is no doubt that the company is breaking the law both on the Russian and the Norwegian side. But I am pleased that the council’s representatives now are showing active engagement in this case. Earlier I have felt quite alone when I have raised questions about the pollution from Nikel in media”, she says to Finnmarken.
Some representatives of the municipality council criticized the mayor for not involving other political parties before going public with the plans to file charges against Norilsk Nikel while others believed that filing charges against the multi-billion company could be considered as an insult by people in neighboring Russia.
Due to the pollution from Nikel, only a few kilometers from Russia’s border to Norway, Sør-Varanger municipality has the highest measured concentrations of sulphur dioxide (SO2) in all of Norway. Cecilie Hansen herself lives in the Pasvik valley, the area most seriously influenced by the cross-border pollution.
The smog from Nikel does not only bring sulphur dioxide across the border. Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) measures the highest precipitation values for heavy metal in Norway in the Pasvik valley. Most worrying, trace metals in precipitation has increased in the area over the last few years. The levels started to increase in 2004, for yet unknown reasons. Norilsk Nickel does not share any production data with Norwegian environmental authorities.
