ANP Chemie factory Chemours near Dordrecht
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 18:15
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Sven Schaap
editor Online
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Sven Schaap
editor Online
In the early 1980s, the Ministry of Economic Affairs paid little attention to potential environmental and health problems when it was decided to grant chemical company DuPont near Dordrecht millions in subsidies for an expansion of its factories. This can be concluded from archive documents released today at the National Archives on the annual Public Access Day.
Environmental problems were hardly discussed by the ministry and emissions of harmful substances were taken for granted, while the Dutch business climate and employment were considered important.
Although the released files are from the end of the last century, the investment subsidies from the Ministry of Economic Affairs are still relevant today. At that time, DuPont, now Chemours, started producing the chemicals we know today as PFAS: a collective name for thousands of chemicals that are dirt-repellent, water-repellent and fire-resistant. These substances are hardly or not degradable and can be harmful to humans and animals. It is clear that Chemours applied for subsidies for facilities where, among other things, these types of substances are made.
Residents living near the factory in and around Dordrecht filed a complaint against the management of the current Chemours last year. They hold the company and its executives responsible for PFAS pollution and accuse Chemours of covering up the pollution for years. Although nothing can be said about this on the basis of these archive documents, it is clear that any concerns about pollution played virtually no role in the granting of subsidies.
‘Hundreds of jobs’
“There was not much discussion about the environment at the ministry,” says archivist Jelle Gaemers of the National Archives. “They had long been happy that DuPont wanted to build new facilities in the Netherlands. That was interesting, because Dupont also hinted that they could also build facilities in other places in Europe. The ministry was open to that.”
The susceptibility to that argument probably also had to do with the fact that DuPont had stopped producing a synthetic fiber in the Netherlands in the previous years, which had cost several hundred jobs. The fact that Chemours wanted to create jobs again with the government subsidy must have sounded attractive to the ministry. An official memo emphasizes in detail that the expansion will generate millions of guilders and hundreds of jobs.
In these documents, the environment and health were clearly not seen as a core task of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, as is evident from the archive documents that can be viewed without restrictions from today. “Permits and environmental issues were the responsibility of another ministry,” said Gaemers.
Open Day
The National Archives in The Hague celebrates Openness Day every year at the beginning of January. Thousands of archive documents that could not be viewed before then or could only be viewed under certain conditions will be released on that day without restrictions. (Amateur) historians and journalists annually browse through the archive folders in search of information.
Not infrequently, major scoops have already been revealed by historians and other researchers, but Public Access Day regularly produces sensational news. For example, after Open Day last year, there was worldwide interest in a released treasure map with a possible Nazi treasure in Ommeren.
The documents also provide an interesting insight into the lobby that the company conducted to obtain that money. This makes it clear that any environmental problems – for example the hole in the ozone layer caused by CFCs, was a problem at the time hot topic – was discussed in consultation between senior officials from the ministry and the DuPont board of directors.
But if that consultation raised any concerns, they were dispelled shortly afterwards by a scientific report that, surprisingly enough, was drawn up by a DuPont employee in the United States. The document even bore DuPont’s logo. “It is not even hidden that this was written on behalf of DuPont,” says archivist Gaemers.
Defending in Brussels
Then DuPont director Donker Duyvis also enthusiastically praised the soothing report in his correspondence with the ministry. According to him, his own research report, which estimated the damage to the ozone layer due to the extra emissions as relatively small, gave “reason for a more nuanced, optimistic view of the matter”.
From other archive documents it can be concluded that DuPont wanted assurance that the European Commission would not block the subsidy, and that the Ministry of Economic Affairs also wants to provide that certainty and will defend the subsidy in Brussels.
The ministry also saw this defensive role for itself in the 1980s if questions came from the then Ministry of Health and Environmental Hygiene (VoMil) or the province, according to another memo. “When asked whether Economic Affairs could and wanted to intervene at Vomil/province in an emergency, the answer was that we were already in discussions with Mr. Donker Duyvis and would certainly assist if necessary.”
2024-01-02 17:15:14
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