Services responsible for monitoring companies' discharges don't know what they're doing
In many regions in the Netherlands, the services responsible for monitoring whether companies are illegally discharging toxic substances into wastewater do not have the required knowledge to do that task, NOS and the regional broadcasters found in a study. At at least 10 of the 28 environmental services, the quality control of wastewater is inadequate.
For example, at the Friesland environmental service FUMO, employees don’t have the training or additional knowledge required for this monitoring task. RUD Utrecht also indicated that employees who do this work do not meet all the training requirements. RUD Limburg Noord said the “work package” is too small, which means that employees can’t meet the frequency requirement - one of the criteria against which the quality of environmental services is tested.
A previous study by NOS and the regional broadcasters showed that the environmental services were unable to carry out sufficient environmental inspections, mainly due to staff shortages. The new study showed that this results in insufficient insight into discharges into the sewer, permit granting, and supervision and enforcement. Some services spend a lot of money on hiring external experts because their employees do not have the required knowledge to carry out these inspections.
In Noord-Holland, the Hoogheemraadschap Hollands Noorderkwartier, drinking water company PWN, and three environmental services recently investigated what companies in the region discharge into the wastewater. They took samples from 77 companies and analyzed them for “substances of very high concern” - heavy metals like arsenic and lead, PFAS, and other harmful substances. They found that 80 percent of the examined companies discharged one or more harmful substances into the water, sometimes by accident.
The water board called the results of this limited sample testing alarming, saying it shows how important proper monitoring is. Companies need to receive advice on what they can and cannot discharge, and the responsible services must monitor that they comply with the rules, the water board said.
