Grumbling nature organizations that partly pay for the costs of cleaning up drug waste or municipalities that have to find jars to cover those cleaning costs. The government will assist these bodies and private individuals as soon as they are faced with high costs due to the dumping of drug waste.
This was announced by the Ministry of Justice.
Private individuals whose drug waste has been dumped on their property or company premises can receive a higher compensation under the new scheme. Now that is a maximum of 25,000 euros that will be reimbursed, in the new scheme this will be a maximum of 200,000 euros.
If drug waste is dumped on the grounds of municipalities or other local authorities, they pay half of the first 50,000 euros in clean-up costs themselves. Above that amount, the government will reimburse the costs, also up to a maximum of 200,000 euros. If there is also serious contamination of the soil or water, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management will bear all costs. If a drug lab is also found, the costs will be recovered from its owners as much as possible.
In recent years, Drenthe has also been regularly hit with dumping of drug waste. Drug waste was found earlier this month in the De Onlanden nature reserve. Dozens of garbage bags were dumped there, filled with potting soil, plants, drainage pipes and Styrofoam-like materials. Forest ranger Bart Zwiers of Natuurmonumenten then said with dismay: “It costs a lot of money to clean up this mess and those granules are also very dangerous for animals, especially for birds.”
Two years ago, the province of Drenthe stated that reimbursing the costs of cleaning up drug waste was still sufficient. The Provincial Executive answered this in response to questions from Forum for Democracy. That party was seriously concerned about drug production in the outlying areas. The reason was the discovery of the largest Dutch cocaine laundry in Nijeveen.
Clearing up costs for drug dumping often add up because the soil at the site can become contaminated. That happened, for example, in 2020 in Annen. At De Bulten in Annen and at De Knijpe in Zuidlaarderveen, dozens of barrels and jerry cans with hazardous substances were found, originating from the production of synthetic drugs. At Annen, chemicals leaked into the groundwater. Remediation of the soil there cost 45,000 euros.
Below you can view the report we made at the time: