Natuurpunt Waasland: “Planned PFOS measures will worsen the problem”

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22.09.2021 | Nature Point Waasland

PRESS RELEASE

Natuurpunt Waasland: “Planned PFOS measures will worsen the problem”

200 trees may not be felled for PFOS verge!

A. Short summary

Natuurpunt Waasland (NPW) is not only the direct neighbour of 3M-Zwijndrecht but has also been the official manager of the European protected nature reserve Blokkersdijk, located next to 3M, for decades. Our managers know the terrain and the living conditions there better than anyone else and state that the measures now proposed, however well-intentioned, will have a counterproductive effect.

In the pages below you can find our reasoning and warnings. They are based on field knowledge and progressive insight. In short, it comes down to this:

1. The 'security berm' between 3M and the E34: 200 trees must not be felled!
   • We absolutely oppose the felling of the mature tree screen (200 trees) because it promotes the airborne spread of the PFOS-contaminated soil. Precisely this airborne spread is not yet sufficiently known and has already caused a great deal of unrest in Zwijndrecht and on the Left Bank. Moreover, this screen is a beautiful landscape screen.
   • The storage of this PFOS soil on the 3M grounds cannot be done in the currently announced design. The verge needs to be further away from the tree screen and needs to be much longer in order to be able to store all the contaminated soil.

2. Stop PFOS-contaminated groundwater
   • In order to stop the historical seepage of PFOS-contaminated groundwater into the much lower Palingbeek and the Blokkersdijk nature reserve, a water-retaining wall must be built deep into the ground around the storage area at 3M. This 'caisson' or 'bathtub' remains necessary until the pollution has actually been cleaned up.

B. Elaborated motivation and plan

Natuurpunt Waasland sees PFOS dossier heading in the wrong direction and offers alternatives

Nature Point Waasland (NPW); never heard of it…

The discussion about the PFOS pollution that has affected us all since April '21, received a lot of attention in all media. A voice that was rarely heard during all that time was that of NPW. This regional nature, environment and land management association is nevertheless a directly involved party. It is the direct neighbour of 3M and is affected by very high pollution values in the European protected nature reserve Blokkersdijk (100 ha), which it officially manages. Its volunteers and employees are also permanently at risk to their health.

NPW consciously chose to present its interests at the negotiating table in a constructive manner, without bidding against each other in the press.
Several rounds of consultations were completed with great dedication and commitment, but the results leave much to be desired. We hardly see any adjustments that offer a solution to our problems. We have the impression that the negotiating partners are mainly interested in postponing our proposals until there is no time to implement them in their own strategies, so that they will ultimately not be implemented. It is therefore high time to change tack and, in addition to continuing the negotiations, no longer avoid publicity.

Preservative measures until our proposals are implemented

In the meantime, the work on the Oosterweel connection and the impetus for decision-making continue to progress; to the point where NPW's sustainable solutions can no longer be realised due to irreversible policy steps. NPW wants to prevent this at all times by sounding the alarm now. As precautionary measures, NPW demands that the already permitted tree felling on the 3M site be cancelled and that the PFOS verge is not constructed in its planned design.

PFOS spread will be worse than before!

The 1 kilometre tree screen on the 3M-E34 border, with 200 trees of 20 m high, will be cut down for the storage of the PFOS-contaminated soil. A better shielding of the contaminated site from its surroundings is however not conceivable, but is planned to disappear. The spread of PFOS via the air will only increase due to the proposed “remediation” and a beautiful landscape screen will be dug up.

The Palingbeek – south of 3M – is heavily polluted, mainly as a result of the seepage of polluted groundwater from the very heavily polluted 3M site.
According to the permit for the Oosterweel connection, the Palingbeek will be cleaned up, after which the natural disturbance caused by the Oosterweel connection will be mitigated with extensive nature development along the widened Palingbeek.

The PFOS experts want to limit this remediation and widening, which means that part of the pollution will remain unmanaged in the Palingbeek. With every maintenance (clearing) the pollution will return to circulation. A non-widened Palingbeek will eventually have to be made deeper to remove the rainwater from Zwijndrecht quickly enough. This is precisely where the error in reasoning lies: the deeper Palingbeek will further strengthen the polluting groundwater flow from the 5-metre higher 3M site to the Palingbeek and further fuel the PFOS spread.

With current policy proposals, the PFOS problem will never be solved!

NPW urges sustainable solutions and makes a global proposal

1. The continuous tree canopy must be preserved because that is extremely functional in the future project.
2. All PFOS-contaminated soil (>70 μgr/kg/ds) must be stored in a controlled manner on the 3M site, pending further remediation of the 'security berm' between 3M and E34, of the soil and of the groundwater at 3M. All this at the expense of the multinational. The planned berm with storage capacity of 120,000 m3 is far from sufficient for this and must be expanded with a strip along the Canadastraat, in order to contain a volume of 240,000 to 250,000 m3.
3. Sustainable remediation can only happen if the extremely heavily contaminated 3M site is isolated from its surroundings, in order to prevent any further source dispersion. This must also be done for the groundwater flows from 3M. With the current policy, these will continue to transport the PFOS to the Blokkersdijk nature reserve 2 m lower and the Palingbeek 5 m lower.
4. Hydrological insulation from 3M is possible with the existing technology that inserts a groundwater barrier up to 4.5 m deep, vertically into the ground. This screen must be inserted a few meters from the border of the 3M site and thus creates a separate "bathtub", within which remediation can take place for the coming decades until the standard is reached. The purified water can then be returned to the ground outside the isolated zone.
   1. In order to keep space free for the preservation of the functional tree screen (and its root system) and for the introduction of the water-repellent soil screen, the PFOS verge must be shifted by approximately 10 m in the direction of the -unused- 3M sites.
5. It is not known to us whether the spread of PFOS via rainwater discharge to the sewer has already been fully mapped. NPW urges to also impose a purification for these “discharges” to achieve the standards and to also strictly monitor them.

Without the techniques proposed by NPW, a PFOS remediation by 3M to meet the standards will never be possible and the environment will receive a permanent influx of PFOS via air, soil and (ground)water. We will then literally be able to speak of “forever chemicals”.

On behalf of Natuurpunt Waasland vzw September 22, 2021

Contact:

Jef Van De Wiele jef.vandewiele@skynet.be 0476/42.83.32

René Maes reemaes@gmail.com 0494/17.85.86

Attachment: plan “Total concept Natuurpunt Waasland”