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DuPont water tower in Dordrecht (Photo: Willemjans/Wikimedia Commons)
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DuPont water tower in Dordrecht (Photo: Willemjans/Wikimedia Commons)
DuPont toxic waste in Dordrecht landfills under investigation
Some 800 families living in Merwedepolder, Dordrecht are living atop an old landfill where DuPont dumped their waste, possibly including toxic C8 from its Teflon factory, AD reports.
The municipality of Dordrecht is launching a large study this week to find out whether the toxic substance in present in the neighborhood's soil and groundwater. Three other old Dordrecht landfills will also be tested. This study forms part of a national investigation into perfluorinated compounds in Dutch groundwater.
The nationwide investigation will be performed by researchers from Witteveen+Bos, TTE Consultancy and Arcadis. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment and national health institute RIVM are also participating. Dordrecht was chosen as the starting point due to the turmoil surrounding the DuPont plant and toxic C8, according to the newspaper.
"We know that industrial waste was dumped in the Dordrecht landfills, but we do not know where DuPont's C8 is and how much there is. We don't know exactly what's going on", Jonne Bochove said to AD on behalf of the municipality. "Nothing was recorded in those years and supervision was also less. We're talking about the 60's to 80's."