There is too little attention to the disadvantages of salt extraction in East Groningen.
Salt extraction company Nedmag and chemical company Kisuma in Veendam have been discharging toxins such as cadmium, lead, mercury and arsenic into the Wadden Sea for years. Dagblad van het Noord revealed this weekend that the province is doing little about this due to a lack of manpower and knowledge. But salt extraction in the region causes much more nuisance to people and the environment and more attention should be paid to this.
The response of GroenLinks-PvdA party leader Frans Timmermans on Friday evening to a question from the audience in De Oosterpoort about salt extraction near Veendam was telling. Timmermans knew nothing about it, he admitted, but would like to come by sometime to get information.
Like Timmermans, there are many more politicians who know little or nothing about the problems caused by salt extraction in East Groningen. Gas extraction has now entered the political agenda, but it is much less known that salt extraction also leads to cracks in houses. In addition, there is odor nuisance and complaints about low humming tones.
Nedmag is not alone. There are various drillings or plans for drillings around Veendam, Pekela and Winschoten. The salt is used again by companies such as the Japanese Kisuma, which has a factory next to Nedmag in Veendam. There is regularly a bad smell of rotten eggs in that part of Veendam.
We are of course used to something in the Peat Colonies. The cardboard factories in various places still regularly produce considerable odor nuisance. But it’s nothing compared to the stinking layer of foam that used to flow through the canals. The ‘lubrication pipe’ through which Nedmag’s wastewater now goes to the Wadden Sea, the Veenkoloniale Wastewater Pipe (VKA), was mainly intended to remove that foam.
But the pipe was later also used to attract companies such as Nedmag, because it was good for the economy and employment. The nuisance caused by this type of activity has remained underexposed for too long.