From: linaa_all@jt.dk
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Moen's Klint - pollution
Date: 22 Jan 93 10:25:34 GMT
Organization: Jydsk TELEFON

In article <1jm6hgINNebr@vttux1.vtt.fi>, leino@rat.vtt.fi (Tapio Leino) writes:
> I am feeling really pity for the Baltic Sea as it looks like it is becoming
> more and more polluted every year. I still can remember times when I could
> easily see the bottom at more than ten meters depth, but not any more. At
> our coast the see is still reasonably clean so that we can swim there during
> the summer but the southern parts of the Baltic See are like a septic tank.
> 
> For 14 years ago I spent two weeks in Danmark and then all the beaches were
> splendid for swimming and such. Nine years ago when I spent there another
> two weeks the beaches were nice too. Then six years ago the beaches of the
> biggest island (Sjaelland) were already almost too dirty for swimming and at
> my last visit to Denmark two years ago none of the old famous beaches of
> Falster were good for swimming any more. They smelled bad. What a change!
> 
> At the last visit we drove to an island called Moen. At the east end of it
> there is a large natural park and a couple of high hills (Moen's Klint) with
> very steep slopes to the see (like at the Dover). It was a beautiful place 
> with very high trees and dark forest scenery. But when we descended to the
> see level to see the slopes from there we noticed that the water was grey and
> brown and it smelled like a Russian toilet!
> 
> We puked(!) and hurried off back to Sweden where most of the lakes are still
> quite clear (except for the Skaane district!). It was the wish of our kids
> that we'll never ever go back to those southern islands of Denmark.
> 
> I know that we are to blame for this situation in Denmark too but I'll ask
> anyway : Is it a custom to pour your wastes straight to see in Denmark? It
> made me think of the famous line by Shakespeare: "There is something rotten
> in Denmark". If there was a factory then I'd understand that the water is
> polluted but to my knowledge there is nothing such on the Moen.
> 
> Do you know of any other places in Scandinavia which originally are for
> turists but are in the same shape as Moen? Please let me know.
> 
> -- 
> Tapio Leino
> Technical Research Centre of Finland / Laboratory of Structural Engineering
> mail: VTT/Rakennetekniikan laboratorio, P.O. Box 26, SF-02151 ESPOO, Finland
> tel: -358-0-456 6683, telefax: -358-0-456 7003    e-mail: Tapio.Leino@vtt.fi


I can say with absolute certainty: No poluted water is poured straight into 
the sea in Denmark. Every single piece of waste, floating in the southern
parts of the Danish Sea, has a nice little Polish, German, Russian, Baltic,
Finnish, or Swedish label on it. You might get some of the answer, by looking
at the Polish rivers: You can almost walk across!

There is only one way out, for the polluted water: Through the narrow Danish
straits, and it's symptomatic, that the pollution is concentrated on the 
southern parts, where the Danish islands stops the tidal change of water.

You were absolutely right when you stated, that the water smelled like
a Russian toilet - "It is!"

Alex Linaa
JTAS
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic