Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq will demolish a number of buildings in Kangilinnguit – Grønnedal Naval Station. The demolition will make way for a facility that will clean large amounts of soil from oil pollution at the old naval station.
Another step in a large and long-term plan for clean-up at Naval Station Grønnedal in Kangilinnguit has been taken.
The administration in Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq has asked the politicians to give the green light for the municipality to begin the demolition of five municipal buildings at the naval station.
The demolition will make way for the so-called land farm facility, where bacteria will eat their way through the oil pollution in large quantities of soil, and the politicians have approved the administration’s proposal.
Buildings ripe for renovation
The method is known from Station Mestersvig, where soil bacteria “ate” their way through extensive contamination with diesel oil. After being in the facility, the treated soil can subsequently be deposited safely in nature.
The municipality’s administration describes that the properties, which are to be demolished, are not used and that they are in very poor condition.
– All furniture has been removed, and moisture damage and incipient mold have been registered in many places in the plinth. Broken windows have been continuously covered with chipboard by the Armed Forces, the administration writes to the politicians.
Environmental clean-up must continue until 2041
Before the land farm facility can be established, it requires an EIA study, and according to a status note from the Norwegian Armed Forces, this process is underway. It is hoped to be able to carry out a tender for the contractor tasks this year, so that the construction work can start in 2027.
It was way back in 2017 that the then chairman of Naalakkersuisut, Kim Kielsen, and the then Minister of Defense in Denmark, Claus Hjort Frederiksen, entered into an agreement to begin environmental clean-up at the naval station, where, among other things, oil pollution has occurred.
Since then, various measures have been taken, and the environmental efforts at the naval station are expected to last until 2041 or 2042, if the current schedule holds.
