– have too bad emission control

– Land -based fish farming facilities are both more and larger. They cause physical interventions in nature and have large emissions to the sea. Supervision shows that many of the companies do not have sufficient control over emissions. We expect them to correct the violations as soon as possible, says Hilde Singsaas, director of the Environment Directorate in a press release.

The pollution authorities by 10 state managers last year controlled 77 land -based aquaculture facilities, which is a quarter of all the country’s facilities.

The Environment Directorate coordinated the supervisory campaign. The checks were preferably carried out as unprecedented one -day inspections.

Three out of four with weak emission control

According to the Environment Directorate, these were discrepancies that were revealed during the inspections:

• 68 of the 77 controlled businesses had a violation of the pollution regulations.

• In total, 261 violations of the regulations were registered, 34 of which were serious.

• Three out of four companies lacked satisfactory emission control. A fifth broke requirements related to the cleaning of the emissions. 50 of the plants had inadequate internal control.

• There is great variation in the industry. Half of all violations were recorded in 25 percent of the controlled plants.

Failing emission control damage the environment

Emissions of large quantities of nutrients and particles can lead to the sludge of the seabed and provide eutrophication. Information from the companies about the large emission reductions that can be obtained forms the basis for the permit under the Pollution Control Act they receive from the state managers.

– Large land -based facilities can have high emissions. A prerequisite is therefore good cleansing. Without such restrictions, they would not be granted permission under the Pollution Control Act to operate on land, says Environment Director Hilde Singsaas in the press release.

Must follow environmental requirements

The pollution authorities have had a number of supervisory actions with fish farming facilities in the sea. Now the state managers controlled the land -based part of the industry to check compliance with environmental requirements.

– The controls provide us with useful information about the industry and show that they have a lot to address in the field of pollution. The results also show the need for the authorities to follow up land -based aquaculture facilities with more supervision. We also look at how we can guide the industry on the regulations, says Singsaas.

The Environment Directorate will use the knowledge from the supervisory campaign in the efforts to assess standardized requirements for land-based aquaculture, which the Directorate is commissioned by the Ministry of Climate and Environment.