Local residents of mushroom company Scelta Umami in Belfeld are tired of the odor nuisance around the factory. Recently, the municipality of Venlo has received dozens of complaints about this.
The neighborhood wants action and has therefore enlisted the help of Belfeld councilors.
Respiratory complaints
The Van Hoorn family has lived near the factory for years. Sitting outside is no longer an option. This also applies to hanging the laundry or receiving visitors outside. Lyzet van Hoorn has been suffering from respiratory complaints for years and that is only getting worse because of the odor nuisance, she says. “It gives me physical complaints. If the smell is strong, I have closed all my cavities. It’s so bad it gives me a headache. I can’t prove it, but since the company has been here I’ve had five had pneumonia.”
A solution
According to her, there is therefore only one solution. “That company has to go quickly. I don’t understand how such a company can be built close to a residential area,” says Van Hoorn.
Politics
VVD councilor Inge Simons herself lives in the stench circle of the factory and recognizes the problem: “Recently this has caused us to sit outside less and I also hear that from other people in the street.” ALocal councilor Leon van den Beucken is also regularly addressed about this. “It is really dirty air. The further from the source, the less recognizable the smell is as a mushroom smell. Some people talk about burnt car tires or a chemical smell,” he explains.
Measures
Scelta Umami indicates that she is working on a solution for the nuisance in Belfeld. A spokesperson for the company says that measures will be taken in the short term to significantly reduce the nuisance. In this way the water basin of the company is pumped empty. The basin will also be excavated and the soil will be removed. Scelta Umami will then keep the water basin permanently clean. The company hopes to have reduced the nuisance in the second half of June through temporary adjustments.
Permits
According to the mushroom company, more drastic measures are needed for a definitive solution. For example, the company wants to build a roof so that the doors can remain closed for longer and it wants to tackle the drainage of mushroom moisture into the water basin.
The company needs an environmental permit for these adjustments. According to the municipality of Venlo, applying for and processing that permit can take up to a few months. A spokesperson said that Venlo is taking the odor situation into account when granting future permits. New permits must also contain stricter standards for odor nuisance and an obligation for an odor investigation.
Action
The Belfeld councilors believe that the municipality should already respond to this. “Under certain conditions, the municipality can quickly issue that permit,” says Simons. “It cannot be the case that an entire village will be indoors next summer, because a permit process at the municipal office takes so long. Especially not here, because there are no bears on the road to stop that permit.”