There are four rings around the epicentre, with boundaries set by the KNMI, the Dutch meteorological institute. Because the tremors were weaker further away and the chance of damage there is smaller, the possible compensation in the inner two rings is higher. The new approach for those rings is now being worked out, and the Commissie Mijnbouwschade, the mining damage commission that handles the damage from this earthquake, expects to start on the first claims from them after the summer. A scheme for the outer two rings has yet to be drawn up and is expected later this year.
Claims have to be handled more simply because the commission and the Instituut Mijnbouwschade Groningen (IMG), the Groningen mining damage institute, have received so many. The ministry, the commission and the gas company Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM) have agreed conditions for this: compensation must be in proportion to the damage, the scheme must be clear and work in practice, and the cost of investigations must not get out of line with what is paid out. Exactly what the schemes will involve is not yet known; the commission will tell those who reported damage as soon as it is clear.
The magnitude 3.0 earthquake on Saturday 14 March was caused by gas extraction from the Eleveld gas field. On Wednesday 20 May the commission announced the assessment area, based on measurements and calculations by the KNMI. Within that area buildings may have been damaged by the earthquake, but outside it the commission considers that unlikely. People with damage outside the area can still report it, and those were the very reports the commission wanted to deal with first after 20 May. Part of the area falls under the IMG; the postcode check on the commission’s website shows which of the two a report belongs with.
In May the municipality of Aa en Hunze called on residents to report all damage, even if they are unsure whether the earthquake caused it. The municipality itself is pressing for a “milder, more humane and easier approach” for its residents, and for that, it says, it must be clear how much damage there is and where. Only the owner of a building can report damage; the commission is there for private individuals and small businesses.