Denmark’s environment minister, Maria Reumert Gjerding, says she will open talks with Region Midtjylland, Lemvig Municipality and FMC Rønland after the chemical plant announced it will close at the turn of the year.
The minister set out her plans in comments published by DR on September 2, 2026. She said dialogue with the company, the region and the municipality matters to her. The stated aim is to handle the closure as well as possible.
FMC Rønland lies on the Rønland peninsula in Lemvig Municipality in western Jutland. The plant was called Cheminova until 2015, when the American company FMC Corporation took it over. Production at the site has centered on pesticides.
The company currently pumps up contaminated groundwater and treats it on a voluntary basis. The work keeps old pollution from seeping out of the peninsula and into Nissum Bredning, part of the Limfjord. According to DR, the contamination stems from Cheminova’s operations and waste handling from the 1960s onward.
Gjerding said she wants to avoid the marine environment being affected by the shutdown of the plant. As reported by DR, she pointed to the risk that old pollution could reach the fjord if the treatment stops.
Question of who pays
The minister said neither the marine environment nor the residents of Lemvig should end up paying the bill. She did not name who would carry the cost instead. Per DR, she has no concrete proposal on that point.
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Gjerding said it is clear that FMC Rønland must clean up after itself on the newer factory site on the peninsula. That is the ground where the company has produced pesticides for a number of years.
On the treatment of the contaminated groundwater, she said she is counting on dialogue with the company. The talks are to cover how long FMC Rønland will keep financing the work, according to her comments to DR.
She also described the need for a transition point, after which other authorities would take over the expense. No date or framework for such a handover was set out. The minister named Region Midtjylland and Lemvig Municipality as the parties she will talk to alongside the company.
The closure was announced by the company and takes effect from the turn of the year, DR reports. The minister’s comments followed that announcement.
The name Cheminova remains attached to the site’s pollution history, which dates back more than six decades. Gjerding’s remarks did not include figures for the cost of the cleanup or the groundwater treatment.
