New Barneveld district built on polluted ground: report

Hundreds of Barneveld residents are living on polluted ground without knowing it. Over 1,000 tons of contaminated soil was illegally used for two new construction projects in the city, research program Zembla reports based on a report from the Gelderland environmental services.

According to Zembla, a controversial waste processor delivered a total of 10 thousand tons of soil that was heavily polluted with toxic substances styrene and DDT. The company used falsified papers to do this. The pollution in the soil exceeds the legal standards.

The environmental services found that over a thousand tons of that soil was used for two new construction projects in Barneveled - the new district Eilanden-Oost and a smaller scale construction project on Van de Bogertlaan. What happened to the other 9 thousand tons of polluted ground, is not clear.

While it is not yet clear how dangerous the polluted soil is, it is certain that the pollution exceeds the legal standards, according to Zembla. "You have now created risks to public health that should not have been created", former environmental Public Prosecutor Gustaaf Biezeveld said to Zembla.