Umicore in Hoboken today welcomed Cathy Berx, Governor of the Province of Antwerp, to its site. Her visit marks the completion of a close collaboration between the governor's Federal Emergency Planning Department, Antwerp Fire Zone and Umicore to improve its emergency planning, and its fire safety measures in particular. It demonstrates the government's renewed confidence in the safety of the site.
The partnership and monthly consultations were initiated in the summer of 2020 after several incidents at the site between 2018 and 2020 led to incomprehension and concern among local residents in the Moretusburg neighborhood, which is right next to the industrial site. The Hoboken site is a Seveso-type site* and recycles precious and other non-ferrous metals from industrial by-products and from electronics for subsequent reuse.
The governor's visit will present the results of this in-depth collaborative process, as well as Umicore's investments to improve its in-house emergency planning and safety on and around the site. In addition, a number of on-site environmental improvement projects will be explained. For many years now, Umicore has been investing €25 million a year in projects that improve environmental performance.
Governor Cathy Berx: "Because of the use of metal-containing raw materials and necessary reagents and additives required in the recycling process of, among other things, precious metals, Umicore is a Seveso-company, one of many on the territory of the province of Antwerp. These companies require superior safety measures and vigilant supervision. For Umicore Hoboken, located in a residential area, the bar must be set extra high in terms of safety and environmental care. If an incident does occur, the company must handle it properly, which means having a perfectly functioning emergency plan, maximum transparency to the authorities and quick, open and correct communication with local residents. Over the past few years we have all worked intensively on these points together with the various safety partners. I am therefore satisfied with the results we can present today. I thank the management of Umicore's Hoboken site for their strong commitment and the many efforts they made during the cooperation process. Also many thanks to the partners -the staff of my Emergency Planning Department, Fire Brigade Zone Antwerp and the City of Antwerp- for the thorough follow-up and excellent guidance."
"We are delighted with Governor Cathy Berx's visit to our site. After three years of intense and professional collaboration with her government services, we have achieved significant improvements in our emergency planning and fire safety at our site. Our internal emergency planning has become much more robust, as we have aligned our emergency procedures and, in consultation, linked them to concrete measures on the site. I consider the governor's visit to be a sign of confidence and look forward to continued cooperation to make the safety of our site next to a residential area as conclusive as possible. This of course goes hand in hand with our continuous investments in our emergency operations and environmental care," said Johan Ramharter, Senior Vice President and Director Umicore's site in Hoboken.
Examples of fire safety measures Umicore has taken at the Hoboken site include:
- the installation of additional fire-fighting facilities (four tanks of 1,000 m³ each)
- the installation of eight additional fire hydrants and 14 collectors
- the expansion of the internal company fire department to seven from five colleagues who are permanently present on the site
- the mapping of fire risks for all services and production departments on the site and checking the condition of the building against regulations. This was done by an external fire expert. The focus was on prevention with the exclusion of fire risks, the timely detection of abnormal situations and the safe response by the fire department.
In addition, the crisis team, which works with a permanence system and meets when an incident occurs, was expanded from 22 to 68 members.
*Note:
Seveso companies, such as Umicore site in Hoboken, produce, process, handle or store hazardous substances. Belgium has a total of more than 400 Seveso companies. At the provincial level, the province of Antwerp has the largest number of such companies with approximately 100 companies. Monitoring and adjusting the emergency plans of Seveso companies is a government task that falls under the competence of the governor.
The coordination of the internal emergency plans at company level (Umicore) and the external emergency plans of the government allows for faster and more targeted action in case of emergencies. Seveso companies are required to draw up an internal emergency plan and to test it every three years during an exercise. These exercises are often organized in cooperation with the federal Governor's Office of Emergency Planning. The governor regularly attends such exercises.
