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Since Saturday afternoon there has been a chemical smell that is difficult to define over Antwerp. The Antwerp Fire Department and the city’s environmental department are looking for the cause, but it has not yet been found.
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Fire Department Zone Antwerp has already received a dozen calls about the odor nuisance. “It concerns an oil-like odor,” confirms spokesperson Marie De Clercq of Fire Brigade Zone Antwerp. “Our teams always go on site to take measurements and look for the cause, but it has not yet been found.”
“We are interviewing companies, in the port and beyond, because it is not said that the stench of a company enters the port,” says a spokesman for ships for the Environment Tom Meeuws (Vooruit). “It certainly doesn’t come from Total. They are not involved in processes there that could lead to odor nuisance.”
It is also not said that it is the same odor that plagued the city a few times last month and the cause of which has not been found. Then it was about a petroleum odor and questions were asked about it at the city council. Port alderman Annick De Ridder (N-VA) said that the Port Authority and the Flemish Environment Agency made every effort to find the cause. “With what we know now, there has never been a threat to public health,” the ships said.
“We have had enough for Green Antwerp”, says Groen provincial councilor Ilse Van Dienderen. “In recent months, complaints about odor nuisance have been rife. Every time we notice that the fire brigade, environmental service and police are in the dark about the cause. More odor detection systems must be installed and companies must be made responsible for taking measures to prevent and monitor odor nuisance,” says Van Dienderen.
“We ask the governor to take charge of the investigation and to draw up an odor nuisance action plan together with the various government services,” said the provincial councilor for Groen.
dh, svw, jtp
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