Number of complaints about stench nuisance Vamberg peaked in the summer

Erik Koekoek has been living in Pesse for 1.5 years, six kilometers from the VAM mountain. “I’ve worked in construction with paint and turpentine, so I’m used to a lot. But this is so bad.” According to Koekoek, the smell is at its worst at night. Then he is often awake and wants to take a breath. “I then have to close all windows and doors. It is as if the waste incineration is at its worst. Outside you really have a pungent poisonous smell.”

Koekoek reported his nuisance, he even called the police. He didn’t listen. “It is unbearable when the wind comes from the northeast. You would almost die.” However, it didn’t stop with the smell. He also attributes tearful eyes and a sore throat to the air.

Since 2020, the municipality of Midden-Drenthe has had a complaints hotline where residents can sound the alarm. Koekoek turns out not to be the only one who made a report. While residents reported nuisance eight times in the first six months of the year, there were 24 in the months of July, August and the beginning of September. A threefold increase. ‘Disappointing’, says the municipality. “Certainly because it went better in recent months.”

The municipality of Midden-Drenthe is satisfied with the fact that people know where to find the hotline. “It is a considerable increase”, is the reaction about the summer peak. “Every complaint is one too many. It seems logical that it has to do with the heat, that the smell lingers longer or because people spend more time outside, but those are assumptions.”

According to the municipality, it is difficult to determine what the real cause is. The province of Drenthe, which is the competent authority for a number of companies in the area, also recognizes this. “We cannot properly identify which company is causing the nuisance,” explains a spokesperson. “We’re trying to investigate that.”

The Regional Implementation Service Drenthe (RUD) is the appropriate party to conduct research. “It is clear that the source of the odor usually comes from the companies on the ETP site. However, this is not always the case. The system of odor measurements does not yet provide a clearly identifiable company,” the RUD replies. questions about the measurements.

“The system of odor measurements/research is currently insufficiently fine-grained (trained). More and more data is being built up for more reliable analyses, via field observations, olfactory observations by air specialists on site.

According to the municipality of Midden-Drenthe, the cause is difficult to determine, among other things, because local residents are asked during the complaint handling process what they think the cause is and that it always involves their own interpretation. “If you have a source, you can easily tackle it.”

After a complaint, the RUD will contact the reporter. “Sometimes, for example, a company is mentioned as the cause, while the prevailing wind direction at that time does not make this plausible”, the RUD agrees with the difficulty outlined by the municipality.

By asking further questions, the RUD hopes to obtain more information about the complaints. “In addition, continuous odor monitoring takes place via sensor boxes that are hung in the area of ​​companies on the ETP site. In the event of a report, the data from the sensors is read out and analyzed by an air expert,” the RUD outlines the measurement process.

“However, the sources are so close to each other on the business park that it is not yet possible to designate a specific source, more time is needed for this.” The RUD says it is increasingly able to draw up ‘company odor profiles’. “The next step is to trace it back to a conscious company’s ’emission source’.”