Lynetten

Facts

Waste water treatment plant saves the Sound

By Georg Stenstrop, Museumsleder, lic. phil. (4 stories)

Lynetten" is Denmark's biggest waste water treatment plant. It opened in 1980 on a landfill at the northern tip of Refshale Island, close to an old sea fort. The original plant was only equipped to remove organic waste in a sewage works by means of oxygenation. The demands specified in the Aquatic Environment Plan of 1987 spelled significant expansion for the plant. The significantly modernised larger plant that was put into operation in 1997 removes nitrogen and phosphorus through a combination of biological and chemical processes. Lynetten receives waste water from an area of 76 square kilometres with about 535,000 inhabitants. "

Partly a public place

Selected entry

As clear as mud

Story written by Georg Stenstrop

Time / Periode 1980

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The growth in private consumption and industry after World War II put Copenhagen's sewage system, which hadn't been renewed since the beginning of the 20th century, under pressure. Copenhagen trusted the very great self-cleaning capacity" of the Sound, the stretch of water between Denmark and Sweden. This belief was put to shame, though, as new chemicals, detergent and many millions of litres of untreated waste water were pumped out into the Sound. During the 1960s, the Sound was so polluted that in newspapers and everyday speech it was dubbed "Pløresund" meaning Mud Sound. The pollution floated in small islands of foam clogging up beaches and streams. After a long debate, in 1974, the City of Copenhagen granted its largest ever single appropriation: DKK 590 million for the Lynetten Wastewater Treatment Plant on Refshale Island. "