3,000 litres of oil spill into Danish fjord

Some 3,000 litres of diesel oil leaked into Aabenraa Fjord off the eastern coast of Jutland on Wednesday. 

 

According to the South Jutland Police, the oil was stored in a tank at the former Ensted Power Station, a thermal power plant that closed down in October 2013. Police said that a broken pipe began spewing the oil into the bay Wednesday morning. 

 

Police said that the spill covered roughly 500-600 square metres in the fjord. 

 

South Jutland Police wrote on Twitter that around 300 square metres of the diesel oil spilled and that both the Danish Emergency Management Agency (Beredskabsstyrelsen) and the Danish Home Guard (Hjemmeværn) had been called in to help contain the spill. 

A police spokesman told Berlingske Nyhedsbureau that the spill looked like “thick, dark syrup”.

 

“We are talking about heavy fuel – a thick oil that is floating on the water,” Nikolaj Hølmkjær said. 

 

Berlingske Nyhedsbureau reported that the Navy has sent a plane to monitor the spill from the air. 

 

Hølmkjær said the clean-up would take several days but stressed that the oil doesn’t pose a human danger. 

 

“It is just like regular crude oil. So if you get it on your fingers, you can just rinse it off using butter. It is not poisonous,” he told Berlingske Nyhedsbureau.