Cleaning up pollution Moerdijkvaart still in progress
A remnant of the long oil trail that floated on the water.
It concerns a route of several kilometers, mainly on the territory of the municipality of Gistel. It will certainly take another week to mow all the reeds. The pollution killed about twenty birds that were smeared with oil. The oil is also harmful to all aquatic life.
The VMM made observations on the trajectory and bundles all their findings in an official report. Maarten Goegebeur, VMM: “We have taken samples and made observations at various locations in the watercourse. In the upper reaches we see that at one location a large amount of biological oil has ended up in the Engelbeek in Ichtegem via the banks. We suspect that this is the source of all the pollution that we are still cleaning up.”
It would be a sauce company of a local ship, but it has already denied the allegations. It is the court that will decide who is guilty, but that could take a long time. He will therefore have to pay the clean-up costs, which can amount to 50,000 euros.