Cleaning vegetable gardens polluted by Chemours will cost tens of millions of euros

The remediation of dozens of vegetable gardens near the Chemours factory in Dordrecht would cost tens of millions of euros. The soil is contaminated with PFOA, a chemical substance that falls under the collective name PFAS. The factory emitted this substance in large quantities for years. Chemours has promised to pay the costs for the remediation.

According to the project leader, 1,300 locations require cleaning for fruit and vegetables from these gardens to be able to be consumed without any health risks. “A rough estimate is that this will cost between 25 and 50 million euros,” he said at the delivery of his first project.

A pilot began recently in three locations, Sliedrecht, Papendrecht, and Wijngaarden, to gain experience in remediating vegetable gardens. In Sliedrecht, the top 50 centimeters of contaminated soil has been dug up and replaced by clean soil. The allotment grower planted some garlic plants in it on Monday, in the presence of, among others, director An Lemaire of Chemours and alderman Roelant Bijderwieden of Sliedrecht.

Members of the local protest group “Stop PFAS, stop Chemours” also attended the gathering, but they were forced to leave the premises. They followed Lemaire’s speech from behind a fence. "Zero from the pipe!" they chanted.

Two security guards, who had been guarding the entrance, walked with the Chemours director when she left the vegetable garden. The location is situated opposite the factory, on the other side of the Beneden-Merwede river.

The director said during her speech that the company is hoping that initiatives like this and other concrete steps will help them regain nearby residents’ trust. Lemaire said that she knows that the company has a long way to go in order to achieve this. “We are trying to put a point behind the past. We want to do this with concrete actions and measures,” said Lemaire in Sliedrecht.

"We want to address the concerns of local residents and eliminate them," Lemaire repeated over and over again. She also emphasized that Chemours has "enormously" reduced the emission of harmful substances. "The situation is very different now than it was a few years ago. We are at less than 1 percent emissions compared to what it was. We want to approach 0, we are working on that. We are doing everything we can to eliminate the concerns, whether justified or not."

The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) advised people to not eat anything from vegetable gardens within a kilometer of Chemours in 2022.

After research was conducted in the municipalities of Dordrecht, Molenlanden, Papendrecht and Sliedrecht, the RIVM concluded that the vegetables had higher concentrations of PFAS, especially PFOA. PFAS are chemical substances that can be damaging for people’s health and the environment.

The court thinks that Chemours (which used to be called DuPont) are responsible for the damage that occurred as a result of their pollution on the surfaces of Dordrecht, Molenlanden, Papendrecht and Sliedrecht between 1984 and 1998.

The chemical company agreed with the municipalities to help and pay for the remediation of the vegetable gardens and the Merwedelanden, which is a swimming lake that is also polluted with PFAS.