Press release first hearing environmental injunction claim

25.11.2021 | Press release first hearing environmental injunction:

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Greenpeace press service
Spokesperson for Fundamental Rights

PRESS RELEASE

'Grondrecht, Greenpeace and Thomas Goorden meet BAM/Lantis and 3M in court for first hearing of environmental injunction'

Antwerp, 25.11.2021

On Thursday 25 November, Grondrecht, Greenpeace and Thomas Goorden are expected in the Antwerp Court of First Instance. Then, for the first time, they will plead their environmental injunction, with which they ask the judge to intervene to adjust the Oosterweel plans. “Since the government is not taking action to protect the environment and our health, we had no choice but to go to court. In the meantime, digging continues in our backyard, even though it is clear that there is a lot wrong with the Oosterweel permits.”

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The environmental injunction was filed in August because the coalition was concerned about the Oosterweel works that were started on the Antwerp Left Bank. These works are taking place in soil that is heavily polluted with PFOS, which poses risks to local residents and the environment. Recent blood tests show that a majority of local residents already have dangerous PFOS levels in their blood. This is an additional reason, according to the coalition, to take all possible precautions on the Oosterweel site.

The claimants first of all question the standards used in the permits for Oosterweel. “The standards for earthmoving that are used are outdated. Furthermore, they were drawn up taking into account what was feasible to realise the Oosterweel project, where the protection of the environment or public health should have been the primary consideration.”, says Jonas Vernimmen, spokesperson for Fundamental Rights.

Secondly, residents are concerned that the construction of the Oosterweel connection will mean that pollution cannot be tackled in the long term. “The result of these works should not be that the pollution becomes the status quo. If we really believe that 3M should clean up our living environment, we cannot keep the pollution trapped under the Oosterweel connection for decades.”, says Jonas Vernimmen, spokesperson for Fundamental Rights.

Finally, residents are also concerned about the transport of the most heavily contaminated soil to the 3M site and the way in which that soil is stored there. “A PFOS dump is being constructed, a stone's throw from residential areas. For the time being, we have not seen sufficient guarantees that the risks to local residents and the environment have been sufficiently taken into account.”, says Jonas Vernimmen, spokesperson for Fundamental Rights.

On Thursday, the admissibility of the environmental injunction and the need to take precautionary measures will be pleaded. The coalition is asking the judge to impose various recommendations formulated by the Earthmoving Commission bindingly on BAM/Lantis, as an interim measure. For example, the Commission stated that a detailed zoning plan had to be drawn up for the Oosterweel construction site, in order to prevent the pollution from spreading further. In addition, it must be guaranteed that soils with values higher than 70 μg/kg are not used on the surface, and that living layers near residential areas are constructed with clean soil.

“We are still not convinced that BAM/Lantis complies with all the guidelines of the Earthmoving Commission”, says Jonas Vernimmen, spokesperson for Fundamental Rights. “The best example is the guideline to actively involve the residents, that is, us. Apart from two leaflets that we received in the mail, in which BAM/Lantis reassured us that there is no problem with PFOS, we have not heard anything from them in the neighbourhood. So the impression is strong that BAM/Lantis interprets the guidelines very minimally, or simply ignores them. Let us hope that the judge will change that.”

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