The choice of the western zone of the very high voltage line between Fos-sur-Mer and Gard arouses anger
|En fin de conseil communautaire, l’association Terre d’Argence est venue demander aux élus de se mobiliser. Midi Libre – C.M.
On Friday, September 27, RTE will present in Marseille the chosen time zone for the 400,000 volt line that will run from Jonquières-Saint-Vincent to the industrial port site. Angry, Asta (Terre d'Argence association) and elected officials from the Beaucaire Terre d'Argence community of communes are mobilizing.
"On September 27, in Marseille, RTE will present the zone with the least impact selected for the passage of a 400,000 volt THT line. We already know that this is the western zone (bypassing Arles to the south and west and going up to Jonquières via Fourques and Bellegarde, Editor's note ). We are all disgusted to see that despite a massive demand from the population to consider other solutions, despite massive opposition from local elected officials, many professional and environmental protection organizations to the overhead line, RTE persists in its ecocidal project, destroying jobs and the landscape” assert the members of Asta (the Sauvegarde Terre d'Argence association that was created last year when this project was announced) who joined the elected officials of Terre d'Argence in the evening on Monday, September 16, who met in a community session.
A route that moves away from Arles and the Alpilles to pass through the Gard
The members of the association discuss the arguments summarized by RTE for the choice of the least impact zone "following a multi-criteria analysis". RTE explains "that to the south (Fos sector and Crau plain, Editor's note), the zone uses the central reservation and avoids the consumption of agricultural land, limits the landscape impact by being positioned at the level of a passageway and appears more interesting in terms of ecological”. On the northern part, RTE emphasizes that “the western section, although passing through the costières de Nîmes and the registered site of the Camargue Regional Natural Park, remains outside its biosphere reserves and allows one to move away from the Alpilles PNR, the center of Arles and its exceptional heritage. “
“This project ultimately brings virtually no changes to the initial project. While we nevertheless proposed an alternative that RTE did not even study. For this, the CNR even put an engineer at our disposal. We are not just eccentrics and we do not question the idea of decarbonizing Fos” Luc Perrin explained to elected officials for Asta.
Alternative projects proposed
The alternatives proposed by the Stop THT 13/30 collective (which brings together several Gard and Bucco-Rhodanian associations including Asta) are: improving the productivity of the network on the Feuillane-Ponteau-Réaltor line; relocate hydrogen production to the Aramon brownfield site, transport hydrogen production from Aramon to Fos by gas pipeline along the Rhone embankment, bury (pipeline buried under water) the 400,000-volt line in the Grand Rhone or the Arles-Bouc canal and/or bury it at the foot of the Rhone embankments and develop the energy mix (wind and solar).
On the facade of the CCBTA, a clearly expressed opposition. Midi Libre – C.M.
“Faced with such “denial of democracy, such contempt for the populations, such an attack on our living conditions, on the economy of our territories, on a remarkable environment, we have decided not to remain passive.” By the 27th, Asta has therefore decided to inform the population and decision-makers of Gard and the Region to mobilize industrialists, elected officials, environmental associations and managers of protected areas who will be present at the meeting on September 27 in Marseille.
For the mayor of Beaucaire: “We are clearly going to war against this project”
Opponents know that they can count on a beautiful unanimity of elected officials of all political persuasions in this matter of the CCBTA. Mayor RN Nelson Chaudon also stressed that the Beaucaire town hall had decided to entrust the Richelieu Avocats firm with defending the interests of the municipality in this matter “using all possible avenues of appeal”. A decision taken following a meeting on September 13 between the mayor of Beaucaire and MP Yoann Gillet and representatives of RTE who presented the chosen time zone.
The two elected officials reaffirmed their “strong opposition to the project thati would sacrifice existing economic actors, major agricultural lands and lives of labor and sacrifice for the benefit of hypothetical economic actors".
An opposition also clearly reaffirmed by the CCBTA, a territory particularly impacted by the route.
“We will all be in Marseille on September 27 " said President Juan Martinez.