State Secretary Hans Vijlbrief will come to the old village hall of Schoonebeek at the end of this month to talk about injecting waste water. During a debate in the House of Representatives, he repeats that he wants to move those injections to Schoonebeek as of 1 January.
Sandra Beckerman (SP) is curious whether Drenthe has anything to say about that move. She comes up with a proposal to give Drenthe control over this. The State Secretary responds that Drenthe does have this, but the State Secretary ultimately issues the permit himself. He says he takes the noises from Drenthe “extremely seriously”.
The wastewater injections are currently still taking place in Twente. On paper, then, because the injections have been stopped for a while. Due to technical reasons, the State Secretary indicated. It remains to be seen whether it will ever be restarted in Twente. The State Supervision of Mines is currently investigating the defects.
But, says Vijlbrief, if it is started up in Drenthe, it will have to go through a cleaner process. “At the beginning of 2024, NAM (responsible for injecting waste water, ed.) must switch to a circular process.” This circular process means that no stuff is put into the ground that wasn’t there before.
“We should not repeat Twente’s mistakes in Drenthe,” he says. “What was wrong in Twente is that it happens at a fairly large distance from Schoonebeek. Wastewater is transported over a long distance. As a result, relatively many dirty substances are added to the wastewater. They are necessary because otherwise the pipes will be damaged. close to Schoonebeek, you don’t have to add those substances.” According to the State Secretary, this could already remove a major concern about health and safety.
He calls the move from Twente to Drenthe a ‘difficult dance’. “On the one hand you want to help Twente, on the other hand you should not inflict new suffering on Drenthe.” The State Secretary considers it more logical to process the waste where oil is extracted.
As for the groups that were present at the debate, the injections must stop immediately in Twente. “The faster the better”, Faissal Boulakjar expressed it on behalf of D66.