Following the leak of the product "AdBlue" (aqueous urea solution used to reduce emissions from cars) which took place at the Shell service station at Berchem, the Environment Minister, Carole Dieschbourg issued a decree of formal notice back on August 4 this year.
The site operators were ordered to take, without delay, all necessary measures to identify, measure and mitigate the environmental impact from the leak of aqueous urea solution "AdBlue" and to present a plan to prevent a recurrence of the incident.
As part of the formal notice of judgment and to assess the impact of pollution, drilling was conducted from 5 to 12 September 2016. According to preliminary results, the pollution affects 40,000 m3 of land on the site of the Berchem service station. Additional drilling is still required for more detailed results.
Proposed Remedy Deemed Insufficient
In order to make an intermediate assessment of the situation, a meeting between representatives of Shell Luxembourg and the Secretary of State for Sustainable Development, Camille Gira, and representatives of the Administration of Environment, Administration of water management and the Administration of Highways was held on Friday 14 October at the Ministry of sustainable Development and Infrastructure. Sanitation solutions in this context by the company did not satisfy the Secretary of State and she demanded that the operator submit short term viable and effective concepts. To date, Shell has not fulfilled all the operating conditions of the authorisation order of July 30, 2015.
Polluter pays principle will be applied
The costs of any analysis are borne by Shell, by virtue of the “polluter pays” principle. Additionally, according to the provisions of the concession agreement, the company will have to cover all the costs of the damage and repair.
