The Mining Damage Committee did not pay a penny in compensation last year. No crack in homes just outside the so-called Groningen field has been proven to be caused by mining.
The Mining Damage Committee deals with damage to homes outside the Groningen quake area. Damage within that area is handled by the Mining Damage Institute (IMG).
The Mining Damage Committee received 176 damage reports last year. For the most part, these were homeowners in Groningen, Drenthe and Friesland along the edges of the Groningenveld. There were especially many reports around Veendam and from West Groningen. It is people who are concerned that cracks or other damage have come from salt extraction, from gas extraction from small fields or from gas storage.
Cause other than mining
The experts from the Mining Damage Committee have investigated all those 176 reports. The damage must have been caused by something other than mining, committee chairman Rian Vogels said in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
The fact that damage reports mainly come from the Northern Netherlands is, according to Vogels, because there are concerns about mining among the population, especially in this region. In itself, damage can also occur during salt extraction, such as around Veendam, and gas storage, such as at Grijpskerk and Norg.
“But the situation above the small fields and the salt extraction and gas storage is incomparable to that above the large Groningen field,” Vogels said at a presentation of the committee’s annual report in parliament. Earthquakes occur very regularly in the nuclear gas area in Groningen. According to the committee, there were no calamities at all at those other fields last year.
Investigate other cause
That’s not to say it never will; salt caverns may collapse or other problems may arise. The Mining Damage Committee will continue to monitor this closely, Vogels promised the House of Representatives. Scientific research is also being done into possible other causes of cracks and other damage, such as the settlement of peat or other movement in the soil.