This was an unusual change in the usage of a dump. The only one that perhaps was not so happy about this development was the hubro owl that lived nearby. The rats, crows and gulls that the owl collected from the dump were perhaps not health food, but they were easy access food that was available all year long. That the hubro establishes its territory at such places is well known from many other Norwegian dump sites. The covering over of an old dump - when no one knows exactly what might be buried here - is no simple solution. In the time following, the waves washed forth some of the garbage. Sediments on the sea floor also contain environmental pollutants, and locally, the fish and shells are contaminated. Even though the area is now used for swimming, there is clearly a need for new and costly measures in order to improve the conditions.
The amounts of several environmental pollutants are too high in the fjord system around Bergen today. It is therefore prohibited to fish some of the fish types that are caught in the most contaminated waters. Old environmental leaks from earlier dumps in the Bergen area are an important reason for this. New studies at Kollevågen have shown that the toxic elements do not spread far. Nonetheless, it is important to improve conditions also here. It is possible to "repair" Kollevågen, but it will be expensive. An estimate from 1999 is on the order of 30 million kroner. Bergen and Omland Friluftsråd, the organization that manages the recreational area, considers Kollevågen one of the finest recreation areas in the region today, but the goal is to improve it even more.
