In an emergency judgment, the Council of State declared the certificates on the basis of which client Lantis moved soil contaminated with PFOS for the Oosterweel works illegal.
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On the Antwerp Left Bank, client Lantis is excavating soil contaminated with PFOS at the Oosterweel wharf, the connection that should round the Antwerp ring road. This is the case, for example, where tunnel shafts are to be installed. A portion of the land further on is being used for a safety berm around the site of 3M, the American multinational that is the source of the historic pollution.
Last night, the Council of State called into question these works in an emergency judgment. According to the Council, the certificates from the Flemish government agency Grondbank that authorize the works, the so-called declarations of conformity, are illegal. That is why the Council suspended those certificates. The environmental organization Greenpeace and the civil rights movement Fundamental Rights had filed the case.
Lantis was allowed to move the contaminated soil because it regards the entire Oosterweelwerf as one and the same project – or ‘cadastral work zone’. But according to the Council of State, it concerns ‘three separate projects, each of which are the subject of several permits’.
Not two, but three yards
In doing so, the Council is going even further than the Flemish Waste Agency previously. According to Ovam, there were two work zones, so according to the Council of State there are three: in addition to the Oosterweel Works on the Left Bank and the Scheldt Tunnel, there is also the work zone on the 3M sites, where a safety berm is to be built. So the declarations of conformity violate the Flemish rules. They make it possible to move soil from one work zone to another.
The Council of State took a very short-term decision, because of the possible consequences of PFOS pollution for public health. “The earth displacement in the work zone cannot be legally carried out,” said a spokesman for the Council of State. ‘A new declaration of conformity will have to be drawn up in order to continue.’
Green demands a stop
Lantis says it is studying the judgment and cannot comment for the time being, according to spokeswoman Annik Dirkx. She says she cannot estimate the consequences of the judgment for the time being, but the ruling may put a heavy burden on the progress of the Oosterweel works.
Earlier, a civil judge in a similar case in summary proceedings no urgent measures are required. ‘We are not opponents of the Oosterweel project per se’, responds Jonas Vernimmen, the spokesperson for Grondrecht. ‘We just want those PFOS grounds to be handled responsibly.’ Last night, Groen demanded that all Oosterweel works be stopped. No appeal is possible against the suspension of the Council of State.
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