The North Sea Canal Area Environment Agency has reprimanded Tata Steel for discharging toxic substances into the sewer. An inspection revealed that high concentrations of mercury, lead and nickel, among other things, indirectly ended up illegally in the municipal sewer via the factories.
–
That Tata Steel puts mercury into the sewer was already known at the end of March, when the Environment Agency requested an overview of heavy substances that the factory discharged. The Environment Agency had already issued a warning to the factory by means of a letter.
fine
Tata Steel says it has a permit to discharge the mercury. But the Environment Agency says it will not go along with this after an investigation. Experts have determined the discharge and also found that the discharge is illegal. Tata Steel would also send results of an analysis of the dumped substances to the Environment Agency, but had not done so.
For these reasons, the Environment Agency is now going a step further and imposing a so-called order subject to penalty on Tata Steel. The steel factory near IJmuiden faces a fine of at least 20,000 euros if the company has not solved the problems within four weeks.
According to spokesperson Annemiek Bots, the order subject to a penalty has an effect. “You can see that Tata is working on alternatives to stop this discharge.”
No danger
According to the Environment Agency, this concerns so-called blast furnace gas condensate. It contains heavy substances such as lead and nickel. The substances ended up in the municipal sewer via the industrial sewer.
The Environment Agency says there is no danger to the safety and health of the environment. The toxic substances were discharged into sewage water that has not yet been purified via the sewage treatment plants. Only after that purification is the water discharged into the surface water.
–
