This Thursday, the Antwerp province will decide on the new discharge standards for 3M. The standards that are now on the table are a lot stricter. So strict that 3M already considers them “unfeasible”. There is a good chance that the chemical company will appeal.
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Thursday will be an exciting day for 3M. Then the Antwerp deputation decides on the new discharge standards of the chemical company. It is already clear that they will become a lot stricter. After all, the advice of the Provincial Environmental Licensing Committee (POVC) was announced today. That committee delivers an advice to the deputation, which is usually followed. The advice is not surprising: like other companies, the advice proposes a discharge standard for PFOS of 1 microgram per liter instead of 30 micrograms. Other PFAS substances also have to be drastically reduced. Most striking are the substances PFBA and PFBS. Of this, 3M is now allowed to discharge 5000 and 3700 micrograms per liter respectively into the Scheldt. In the new permit, that will be barely 20 micrograms.
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“Totally unfeasible,” says 3M in the advice of the POVC. The company itself points out that purifying the wastewater from 5000 to 500 micrograms is unrealistic, let alone to 20 micrograms, as the advice suggests. Those stricter discharge standards are also not necessary, according to 3M. In the advice it also says that a discharge of 1400 micrograms of PFBA per liter has “no adverse effect” on the water in the Scheldt. The company therefore sees no reason at all to further purify the water to 20 micrograms.
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It is therefore also expected that, if the advice is adopted by the Antwerp deputation on Thursday, the chemical company will appeal almost immediately.
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See also: in September Demir sent bailiffs to 3M
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