Environment Allschwil BL in dispute with chemical companies over benzidine pollution
The municipality of Allschwil BL has repeatedly discovered high levels of the carcinogenic substance benzidine in a stream near the nearby former Roemisloch chemical landfill site. The municipality is calling on the chemical companies, and Novartis in particular, to eliminate the source of the pollutant, as it announced on Wednesday.
10.07.2024, 15:06
SDA
The municipality has been at loggerheads with the chemical companies and the Canton of Baselland's Office for Environment and Energy for several years. Accordingly, it has had the current samples from the Roemislochbach in the neighboring Alsatian town of Neuwiller analyzed by the corresponding office of the canton of Basel-Stadt.
According to the report, this analysis detected over 120 substances in a total concentration of 271 micrograms per liter of water. This included benzidine in a quantity that was far above the low limit values set in Switzerland and France.
The chemical companies declared the former Roemisloch landfill site to be remediated back in 2012. For the municipality of Allschwil, it was "incomprehensible" that the companies concerned had never looked for benzidine at their groundwater measuring points and had also removed the measuring points in December.
The municipality no longer places too much trust in the cantonal environmental office either. In January 2022, it had not found any exceedances of the "required values for water protection values" during measurements. However, the office had not taken its samples from the Roemislochbach stream next to the former landfill site, but from the more distant Mülibach stream in Allschwil.
For the municipality of Allschwil, it seems clear: 14 years after the supposed clean-up, it is high time to collect and clean the heavily contaminated water at Roemisloch, to find the source of the pollutants "and finally clean it up properly".
