Residents who made themselves heard before, during and after the presentation of the draft permit are clear: the North Sea Canal Area Environmental Service (OD) must be stricter towards ICL, the fertilizer factory across the IJ. The hydrochloric acid emitted by the factory hits the lungs and causes stinging eyes. And then there is the odor nuisance – unbearable, they say in the North.
Juriaan Mellema, the deputy director for supervision and enforcement at the OD, can therefore get to work. For more than an hour and a half, he explains what the law is, what the OD does and can do as a permit issuer and enforcer, and – the main reason for his presentation – what the new requirements are for the fertilizer factory. And while he spoke to the residents in the Zonnehuis at the beginning of September with a bad feeling, Mellema is a lot more optimistic this time. ICL will most likely have to deal with a stricter permit from next year.
Stricter limits
As stated in the draft permit, each cubic meter that ICL emits from January next year may contain a maximum of 12 milligrams of hydrochloric acid. This amounts to a limit of 1.68 kilos per hour. In the current permit, which has been in force since 2003, this is 30 milligrams and 4.2 kilos respectively.
National legislation is actually stricter: it sets a maximum of 3 milligrams per cubic meter. But European regulations are more lenient and take precedence over the laws of the EU member states. The new hydrochloric acid limits have still been set 60 percent lower than the current permit requirements.
The scent factor
It was already clear that ICL would be required to reduce emissions of hydrochloric acid. What is new is that odor nuisance is included in the draft permit. There are no European and national laws for this, so the provincial odor policy is leading. And it has now recently been renewed.