December 25, 2023: this Christmas day when the Thau pond narrowly escaped contamination

Le jour de Noël, deux incidents survenus à Pomerols et La Peyrade auraient pu avoir des conséquences sur l'état sanitaire de l'étang de Thau Midi Libre – MICHAEL ESDOURRUBAILH

Le 25 décembre 2023, deux incidents survenus à Pomerols et La Peyrade, ce dernier son signalé, auraient pu générer de graves conséquences pour l'état sanitaire du bassin de Thau et l'activité conchylicole.

The Christmas present could have been very poisoned. Already affected by the norovirus in December 2022, the Thau pond has undoubtedly not gone far from new contamination, one year later.

On December 25, two incidents occurred in quick succession. The first occurred in Pomerols, where the breakage of a discharge pipe led to a major leak. Commissioned by the Agglo de Sète for the maintenance of the network, Thau Maritima, a subsidiary of Suez, brought the incident under control before the Fontanilles stream, and therefore then # 39;Thau pond, are not affected.

An alert procedure not respected

But another problem occurred the same day at the wastewater lifting station in La Peyrade (CR44), where a pump broke down without the alarm going off. Result: wastewater which infiltrates for hours into the Rhône canal in Sète. It was not until the next day that Thau Maritima contained the pollution… but without respecting the obligatory alert procedure. Neither Dreal, nor the Agglo de Sète, nor the Mixed Union (SMBT), were informed of the incident and the volumes spilled into the environment. No more, at the end of the chain, than the shellfish farmers, whose production could have been threatened at a crucial time of the year.

"There was a problem of dedicated human resources but also of alarm: there could not be just one and we' 39;had asked Suez. The work was not done", explains Patrick Réamot, deputy general manager for the environment at Sète Agglopôle. Who adds:"This does not excuse anything but at the Suez landfill, the relief station, in poor condition, is at the end of its life. It will also be taken up again this year with the addition of a device which will prevent the formation of sulfuric acid, which attacks concrete."

Saved by the weather

That day, luckily, the weather was favorable. Currents "sent the spills back to sea" and not towards the pond, avoiding bacteriological contamination of the Thau pond. "But it could have. We could have had a closure of the pond on December 31", concedes Patrick Réamot.

Responsible for sanitation, the Agglo de Sète imposed 10,000 € penalty to Thau Maritima for not having respected its contractual obligations. The shellfish farmers, who recently learned of the information and were naturally moved by it, hope that this will be the last time.

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