The PFAS pollution at and around Schiphol is much more serious than previously thought. The poison appears not only to have been used in fire extinguishing foam, but also in a range of other products that were used at the airport. More and more soil appears to be contaminated.
This is evident from a long series of new documents released following an appeal to the Open Government Act.
The fact that this concerns enormous amounts of toxic soil is apparent from, among other things, a letter that Schiphol sent to the Ministry of Infrastructure (I&W) on 10 July 2019. In it, the management states that at that time 200,000 cubic meters – that is about 200 municipal swimming pools full – are stored on the site, but that another 800 swimming pools are expected to be added in the short term.
In that letter, Schiphol begs for possibilities to dispose of the toxic soil elsewhere. “It is becoming increasingly difficult to find space within the Schiphol site to build additional storage facilities,” the letter said. “Moreover, there is a lot of objection from local residents. The capacity is getting more and more urgent.”
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And uh… how is the situation at your airport?
