Officials Cite Danger to Water Supply : Tidy Dutch Alarmed by Pollution Blight : Tidy, Crowded Netherlands Facing Alarming Series of Soil, Water Pollution Blights

The Dutch, long proud of their sleek dairy cows and tidy gardens, are facing an alarming series of pollution blights that have underscored the environmental problems in Europe’s most densely populated nation.

Last month, the Netherlands cabinet decided to isolate about 3,000 dairy cows from the Rotterdam and Amsterdam areas for three months and confiscate hundreds of tons of their milk because it contained three times the acceptable level of the highly toxic chemical dioxin.

Earlier, hundreds of residents in Zeeland province suffered nausea and headaches when foul-smelling air, presumed to have been caused by an acrylic compound released from a ship off the coast, drifted across a 120-mile strip of the southern area.

There has been a growing number of reports of soil contamination--which is particularly dangerous in the Netherlands, where 30% of the drinking water is extracted from the ground.

Better Detection

Environment ministry officials said that better detection techniques and more awareness of environmental hazards have pushed pollution into the headlines. They insisted that many of the problems would be solved if industry followed government environmental regulations.

However, they also admitted that pollution problems in the Netherlands are especially intractable.

“We’re seeing more pollution, because there is more of it. Other countries have problems too, but their population density is less,” said ministry spokesman Paul van den Burg.

One of the world’s most industrialized nations, the Netherlands, with 14.7 million residents, has twice the population density of Britain and four times that of France.

It also forms the estuary of some of Europe’s most polluted rivers, such as the Rhine and the Maas. Because of its small size, the Netherlands receives about one-quarter of its pollution from its neighbors.

Waste Incineration

Authorities suspect that improper incineration of waste may be the cause of the dioxin contamination and have ordered a study of all 12 waste disposal sites in the Netherlands.

Dioxin, one of the world’s most poisonous substances, is released through incomplete incineration and is consumed by cows when it settles on pasture land.

Health officials insisted that it is dangerous only if consumed by people over a long period of time. But agriculture officials, eager to limit damage to the huge dairy export industry, are testing milk throughout the country, trying to assuage worries that other cows may be contaminated.

Authorities in the eastern province of Gelderland are taking no chances. They have advised residents living near incineration sites not to eat garden vegetables and fruits until checks on waste disposal methods are completed.

Aware of growing public alarm over the fouling of the land, the government in May launched the world’s most ambitious national environment plan, vowing to slash pollution 70% by the year 2010.

Government Brought Down

But differences over its financing brought down the center-right government of Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers, and many Dutch worry that little action will be taken until after national elections in September.

“There is serious public awareness, but regulations are not serious enough,” said Ron van Huizen of the Greenpeace environmental group.

“It’s still doubtful that industry and government are ready to pay the financial price for a cleaner environment and whether people are willing to change their way of life--like using their cars less,” he said.