The unrest in Zeeland about the discharge of harmful substances by Flemish factories in the Scheldt has reached a temporary peak. The substances have probably been flowing via Belgium to the Western Scheldt for years, but for several members of the Zeeland state, the measure is now full.
“I need answers about what exactly is going on with food safety and swimming. I want to get answers to that, and then I want to see how we can get the concentration down,” says deputy Dick van der Velde in the radio program News & Co.
The province has sent letters to both Dutch and Flemish politicians to look for a solution. Incidentally, Zeeland and Flemish people have been concerned for some time about the consequences of the discharges for public health and nature.
Perpetual Discharge Permit
The substance fbsa in particular causes unrest. It falls under the pfas group of substances. There is no standard for the substance, but if you apply the pfas standard, fbsa would exceed that 800 times. However, it is not entirely clear how dangerous the substance is.
Its discharger in the region is 3M, a large American chemical company (known for its post-it blocks, among other things) in the port of Antwerp. Last year, the company received a “perpetual environmental permit” from the Flemish government to be allowed to dispose of the substance in the Scheldt.
The province of Zeeland says that the Flemish people are not aware of the granting of that permit. Rijkswaterstaat also states that it has never received the permit in question.
Discussed several times
In response to questions from the NOS, the Flemish Minister for the Environment, Zuhal Demir, writes that he takes the protection of the environment very seriously, but denies that the Netherlands has never been informed. “The pfas problem has indeed been discussed several times with our northern neighbors,” she writes.
According to the minister, this happened in the so-called International Scheldt Commission (ISC), where the Flemish Environment Agency shared information about measurements and permits for pfas. Representatives of Rijkswaterstaat and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (I&W) sit on that committee on behalf of the Netherlands. Demir suggests that her information was not passed on to Zeeland by them.
Surprise in The Hague
“If the information shared by these representatives was not shared further with the province of Zeeland, I regret that and I count on initiatives being taken in the Netherlands to structurally improve the information flow to the province,” the minister writes. But this statement again arouses surprise in The Hague. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management says it is investigating the state of affairs and will come up with a response later.
Minister Demir has announced that he will talk to the province of Zeeland. According to the Flemish minister, the Dutch Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management, Barbara Visser, was also invited, but she declined the invitation.
A spokesperson for Visser says again that such a request has not been made at all. “The minister would like to meet her colleague, to get acquainted and to discuss this matter,” she says. She says she understands the concerns of the Zeelanders.
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