[ad_1]
- Blausee AG considers illegally deposited gravel to be the cause of the death of several fish in Blausee.
- She raises accusations against the authorities: “We would never have thought that something like this would be possible in Switzerland.”
- Government Councilor Christoph Neuhaus defends himself: The canton of Bern has limited resources for controls. The construction companies were not working “decently.”
Blausee AG raises serious accusations against the Berne authorities: “What worries us is the fact that all the authorities have been informed for three months,” said Stefan Linder, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Blausee AG. But from his point of view, so far very little has happened from the canton.
Linder says he never thought something like this was possible in Switzerland. “I always thought that there were many laws that protect us.” Drinking water is one of the most important goods in this country, emphasizes the “Rundschau”.
Illegally contaminated gravel dump
Blausee AG has had to fight several fish kills since 2018. 1000 tons of old gravel contaminated with heavy metals and toxins were illegally dumped into the quarry over the lake. This is how the contaminants presumably got into the groundwater.
Hundreds of fish have died in Blausee in the Bernese Oberland since 2018.
SRF
The contaminated ballast from the Lötschberg tunnel is still openly recharged and temporarily stored at the quarry site. The canton of Bern wants to tolerate this until the end of September. This is incomprehensible to Linder.
Don’t act like the wild west
“We didn’t miss it,” Jacques Ganguin, director of the Bern Water and Waste Office, said against the allegations. But the state is subject to administrative principles. “We can’t move like bailiffs in the Wild West.” The state cannot kill something overnight because of suspicion.
His office took the incidents seriously. In summer, the canton ordered that the illegally stored material had to be dredged again. Ganguin emphasizes that the current situation does not represent an acute environmental danger from the point of view of the authorities. “The residual risk is acceptable.” Therefore, open reloading and interim storage of loaded ballast is tolerated.
AG doesn’t feel taken seriously
Stefan Linder has the feeling of running into a wall: it is incomprehensible to the Chairman of the Board of Blausee AG that such a large construction site is not better controlled. Especially since there are tons of material loaded with sensitive substances. Linder demands that the incident be fully investigated.
Bern’s director of construction and traffic, Christoph Neuhaus, says in an interview that he is too understaffed to carry out checks on each of the 130 gravel pits in the canton.
A respected company was commissioned to renovate the tunnel: “It can be assumed that a reputable construction company that has experience and specialists will do the job correctly,” says the governing council. Much of society is built on trust. “Here they taught us better.”
Canton wants to learn lessons from history
The construction company had to dig up the incorrectly deposited material and transport it. “That cost him accordingly,” says Neuhaus. Also, the company now gets a bad press.
His management will learn the lessons from the company’s next big construction site: “Next time there will be controls, and no more control. If someone does not follow the rules, it is better to control, ”said the governing council of Bern.
