Pollution of old mines in Gard: the Council of State requires Umicore to clean up the Thoiras and Saint-Félix-de-Pallières sites

Le site minier de la Digue était, pour la société Umicore, le seul terrain dont elle s’estimait responsable. Midi Libre – ALEXIS BETHUNE

Since 2018, the Belgian multinational has been contesting the obligation imposed by the State to confine waste from five former mining sites in Gard, including the Joseph mine in Saint-Félix-de-Pallières.

They received, in their eyes, a historic letter this Monday, April 22. A document from the Council of State, addressed to the mayor of Saint-Félix-de-Pallières, Bruno Weitz, who forwarded it to his predecessor, the current deputy LFI of the 5th district of Gard, Michel Sala.

The document recalls the procedure launched by Umicore. Since 2018, the Belgian multinational has been the subject of a formal notice issued by the former prefect of Gard, Didier Lauga, forcing it to confine waste on five former mining sites that are sources of heavy metal pollution, two in Thoiras and three in Saint-Félix, including the old Joseph mine. Umicore, its last owner, exploited zinc and lead there until 1971.

"We could pop the champagne"

Since 2018, Umicore has been trying to overturn this formal notice. Aside from only one of the five sites in question, the one known as the "Umicore dike", the firm indicates "not being the owner of the land located within the perimeter from the old mine.

She therefore, until 2023, brought the case before the administrative court, without success, then before the Toulouse Court of Appeal, which also ruled in favor of the decision. of the State representative. At the end of 2023, she requested a cassation appeal from the Council of State, which was also refused.

For the two elected officials, as well as for François Simon, of the association for the decontamination of old mines in the old mountain (ADAMVM), this latest decision is synonymous with relief. "We could pop the champagne, smiles MP Michel Sala. This is the end of 14 years of fighting."

"There is no longer any recourse possible for Umicore, continue Bruno Weitz and François Simon. Umicore will be forced to remove its waste from the areas mentioned. This decision could even set a precedent in many other pollution cases in France."

Mayor Bruno Weitz and MP Michel Sala shortly after receiving the letter. Midi Free – ALEXIS BETHUNE

Don't waste any more time

Yet, even if this "fight"The judicial process seems to be definitively over, but the decontamination process remains to be done. Recalling, for example, the case of the Joseph mine, located in the territories of Saint-Félix and Tornac. “A major Cévennes episode like we have already experienced, and that we will experience again, could move all this heavy metal pollution into the streams and organic vineyards of Tornac”, assures François Simon.

“If decontamination is difficult to do, containment is possible”, maintains Michel Sala who affirms that Umicore was already preparing for the definitive maintenance of the formal notice.

Bruno Weitz indicates his intention to “very quickly” contact the sub-prefect of Vigan, Anne Levasseur, in charge of the file for the State services.

Arsenic and cadmium in organisms

In 2018, when the formal notice was announced to decontaminate the former mining sites of Saint-Félix, Didier Lauga, prefect of Gard à at the time, had presented the results of a health study Public France, carried out on more than 1,550 people in the area concerned. This noted, in a quarter of the participants, a presence of arsenic greater than that of the average person. the general population and rate of 12% more for cadmium. However, Umicore "has always said that the other four sites did not come under its control since they "had left for fifty years", Umicore explained. the prefect, but who considered that they remained “owners of the waste they produced”.

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