European Education Project

      Socrates Community Programme - Comenius Action 1
      This  Frederiksborg Gymnasium Homepage project describes the aquatic milieu; streams, lakes and groundwater, in Denmark focusing on the nitrogen polution problem and its effect on the Baltic Sea.
      The pupils of 1.u in Frederiksborg Gymnasium chose to describe the following subjects:
      1. Groundwater and Pesticides
      2. Methods of calculating the degree of polution in aquatic milieus
      3. Agriculture and nitrogen polution
      4. Waste water treatment
      5. Nitrate
      6. Restoration planes
      7. Bridges and water replacements
       
     
     

    The Baltic Sea lines up to  Denmarks costal zones. The Baltic Sea is quite shallow and there are no tides.
    It is 420.000 km2 and thereby one of the greatest brackish water regions in the world.The Baltic Sea is almost surrounded by land except from the narrow danish belts that make the Baltic sea in contact with the other oceans in the world. The salinity of the water never exceeds ten per mille. There is a yearly contribution of freshwater to the Batic Sea from more than two hundred rivers and streams residing in Germany, Polen, the baltic countries, Finland Sweden and Denmark. Contemporaneously, saline water streams into the Baltic Sea from danish belts, and the final mixture of these waters make up the Baltic Sea with a unique life of animals and plants.
    The negative effect of the 200 rivers and streams flowing into the Baltic Sea is the discharge of nutrient salts, organic materials and poisonous substances into the sea from the countries that surround it.

    The future life of the Baltic Sea depends on the controlling of the discharges from danish streams among others. Today, more than 700.000 km2  of  the bottom of the Baltic Sea is dead  because of an exaggerated nitrogen discharge. Other regions have massive problems with poisonous substances discharged, leading to a warning against the consumption of fish from these areas.

    The danish government made a so called  Vandmiljøplan I  (VMPI)  in 1987 . This is a plan to reduce the polution of the aquatic milieus in Denmark, namely the lakes, streams and groundwater. The nitrogen discharge from the agriculture is particularly in focus beeing the main cause of the death of one of our inlets in the north, Mariager Fjord, last summer. In 1987, the plan was to reduce the nitrogen discharge with almost 50%. However, the actual reduction in the period 1990-1996 was only a 17% reduction . Therefore, in 1998, the danish government introduced a brand new plan for the aquatic milieu in Denmark, Vandmiljøplan II  (VMPII). This plan is supposed to fulfil the EU nitrogen directive up to 2003, which requires a decrease in nitrogen discharges of 37.500 tons per year. To fulfil this demand, different initiatives will be implemented as follows:
     

    - Further developement of ecological agriculture (170.000 ha)

    - The cultivations of autumn crops in order to absorb nitrogen to prevent disharge (100.000 ha)

    - Planting forrests (20.000 ha)

    - The arrangement with especially sensitive agricultural fields will be extended (90.000 ha)

    - The establishment of an increase in the amount of water meadows (16.000 ha.)

    - Fertilizer standards will be reduced with 10% starting from the next cultivation season

    - The reuse of animal manuring will be extended by 10%

    - Fodder will be utilized better

    The plan for a cleaner aquatic milieu in Denmark, implemented by the VMP II plan 1998 described above, will be observed by means of taxes and penalties, in contrary to the VMP I plan from 1987, which failed.