Tilmeld dig vores nyhedsbreve »
Environmental law
2.2 Marine environmental protection
The Danish rules on protection of the marine environment are found primarily in the Danish Environmental Protection Act, which governs pollution in the form of discharge from land-based sources, and in the Danish Marine Environmental Protection Act governing ship-source pollution of the sea, cf section 5.2 Wastewater.
The contents of the Marine Environmental Protection Act are to a great extent determined by international agreements on eg oil, chemicals and waste, etc. The Marine Environmental Protection Act prohibits any ship-source discharge of oil, liquids or waste into the sea and stipulates a number of restrictions relating to the discharge of sewer wastewater.
In addition, the Act prohibits any burning at sea or dumping of substances or materials. Dumping of any materials dredged from the seabed, termed disposal of dredge spoil, is, however, allowed subject to the prior permission by the state environment centres.
The Marine Environmental Protection Act imposes strict liability on shipowners for any pollution originating from their ships. Moreover, the Act provides statutory authority for detaining ships calling at Danish ports after having caused pollution until security for the clean-up costs has been provided.
