The Mining Damage Institute Groningen (IMG) is unable to map indirect effects of earthquake damage. It is feared that this will make it more difficult to handle damage in the area around the Norg gas storage facility and Annerveen gas field.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate (EZK) indicated in October that in the event of recurring damage in the ‘earthquake area’ (Groningen and North Drenthe), indirect effects of deep subsidence will be examined.
Due to the injection and pumping out of the storage, there is deep subsidence around the Norg gas storage facility and the IMG would conduct research into what indirect consequences this would have for damage to buildings.
A WOO request (Public Government Act, ed.) now shows that the IMG research agency commissioned Deltares to investigate this, but that the investigation itself never took place. It would be too complex to investigate indirect effects of deep subsidence in combination with issues such as earthquakes or salt extraction.
Linda de Boer from Zevenhuizen, Groningen, has submitted the WOO request to the IMG. She believes the findings are a good reason to have the IMG’s assessment framework for damages adjusted. “This also means something for repeat damage (damage that returns, ed.),” she says.
A letter from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy contains a simplified diagram, which shows that people with repeat damage can only receive compensation if there is a new earthquake. On X (formerly Twitter) the same ministry indicates – after a question from De Boer – that ‘indirect effects’ are also being looked at.
“The problem is that the IMG, and therefore also the ministry, does not know what the indirect effects of ground movement are,” De Boer outlines. “How can you report damage if there has been no earthquake?”
De Boer is bothered by the fact that the IMG ‘kept it under wraps’ for two years that the institute cannot have the indirect effects investigated. “The handling of claims must become milder, more humane and easier. It doesn’t seem like that.”
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