Residents near the Norg gas storage facility are ‘not completely satisfied’ with the conversation they had with State Secretary Hans Vijlbrief on Tuesday afternoon. The politician spoke this week with, among others, the Temporary Working Group Mining Damage One in Niezijl, Groningen. Vijlbrief himself did not reveal anything about the talks.
Residents, process supervisor Leendert Klaassen and mayor Klaas Smid: they all went to Niezijl on Tuesday to talk to Hans Vijlbrief. Only Wisse Hummel, chairman of the Temporary Working Group on Mining Damage One, wanted to say something about the conversations that were held in village hall ‘t Schanshuus.
“It is good that we were given the opportunity to express our concerns”, Hummel said after his conversation with Vijlbrief. According to Hummel, the State Secretary was ‘responsive’ to the concerns of residents. “But a solution is not offered. We did not expect that either.”
With ‘solution’ Hummel refers to the handling of damage around the gas storage facilities. There is still inequality among claimants, one of whom can count on compensation and the other not.
The problems surrounding the gas storage facilities will soon be mapped again via ‘environmental tables’. Leendert Klaassen supervises that process. Local residents, officials from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, the municipalities of Westerkwartier and Noordenveld and NAM will sit at the environmental tables.
But according to the Temporary Working Group on Mining Damage One, the problems have long been identified. She fears delays. “We do not reject the initiative of the environmental tables, but hope that it will not take more time than it already does, because it does take a very long time,” says Hummel.
After the conversation, Klaassen did not want to say anything about the environment tables and their interpretation.
What is already clear is that an investigation will be conducted into the conclusions of research agency TNO, Delft University of Technology and Deltares. Based on those investigations, the reverse burden of proof has been limited in North Drenthe.
An independent agency has started and expects to come up with a result in September whether the application of the conclusion is justified.