Polluters submit concrete forest clean-up strategy to ministry

A strategy for cleaning up a wooded area that was flooded with concrete was submitted to Luxembourg's Environment Ministry this week.

The devastating pollution, which saw a corridor of land 150 metres long and 10 metres wide covered with concrete, was discovered in a rural area close to the Luxembourg American Military Cemetery in Hamm in February this year.

Investigations revealed the contamination had occurred as a result of leakage at a nearby industrial site.

Six weeks on and the company responsible for the pollution has submitted a clean-up strategy to Luxembourg's Environment Ministry, which was put together with environmental consultants Eneco SA.

Nature and Forestry spokesman Claude Parini said that the proposal has been submitted and is currently being checked by the relevant administrations to ensure it fulfils all the conditions required.

Restoring the site will require more than simply removing the concrete deposits, which are 40 centimetres thick in some places. It will also require uprooting and replanting some trees, he said. 

Paul Baatz of the concrete production firm responsible for the pollution, acknowledged fault. “It is our fault. We did something wrong,” he said, explaining: “A valve was accidentally opened and created a bypass so that the concrete washed from the trucks escaped into the forest.”

He said that the valve was underground and had not been spotted. Mr Baatz reassured that it won't happen again.

Translated from an article by Maurice Fick

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