After Think Pink: Tighten the legislation around drinking water

Several of the places where Think Pink stored environmentally hazardous waste, and where toxins may have leaked, are located near wells and drinking water sources.
Now Swedish Water wants to see stricter legislation and better controls so that something like this does not happen again.
– It’s not good at all. Anything that can disturb the quality of drinking water is worrying, says Birger Wallsten, drinking water expert at Swedish Water.

At least eight of the 21 landfills where the defendants behind Think Pink are suspected of having committed serious environmental crimes are located near drinking water sources, water protection areas or individual wells.

Arsenic, lead and other toxic substances have been found at several of the sites, and harmful levels have been measured in at least one well.

Now the industry organization Swedish Water is demanding several measures to secure drinking water.

– We would like to see better possibilities for supervision for a supervisory authority. That they should be able to see earlier that the self-control does not work. And also that you plug the holes in the legislation that have also emerged here, for example that you can move garbage around to different facilities, says Birger Wallsten.

Flows into Mälaren

Along the Svartån is one of Think Pink’s waste heaps. The river flows into Sweden’s largest source of drinking water – Mälaren – which supplies two million people with drinking water.

– Clean drinking water is a necessity of life and is needed for societies to grow and thrive, and for people’s health and also for nature. So it is a very important resource that we must protect, says Birger Wallsten.

Think Pink’s accident is described as the worst environmental crime scandal in Sweden. It is about 21 places in 15 municipalities in Central Sweden where waste has been left, dumped, stuffed into bales and buried in the ground and covered with soil. In several places, environmental toxins have been found in high concentrations and in the smoke spread from fires in the rubbish heaps.

Recently, the prosecutor announced that eleven people are being prosecuted, including Bella Nilsson, also known as the “Queen of trash”. She is singled out as the main suspect in the case.