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Justice tightens the vise around the factory Alteo de Gardanne and its rejections in the Calanques ©
AFP / File
/ BORIS HORVAT
Justice tightened the grip on Friday around Alteo alumina plant in Gardanne (Bouches-du-Rhône), which continues its activity after having rejected for half a century, until the end 2015, "red mud" in the Mediterranean, offering a partial victory to ecologists
The Administrative Court of Marseille has prescribed a new impact study on the site and its waste, and reduced by 2 years, at the end of 2019, the deadline granted to this plant, which employs 450 employees, to bring its discharges of liquid effluents in the Mediterranean into compliance with environmental standards, in the heart of the current Calanques National Park.
This decision modifies the framework in Alteo, the world leader in specialty aluminas, has operated this site since the end of 2015. At that time, discards of "red mud" at sea ceased, in exchange for "substantial changes" in the production process, demanded by the state. . [19659003] The industrialist, who claims to have already made significant progress in his treatment of wastewater, was granted exemptions for certain pollutants, such as arsenic, and aluminum, with six years, until the end of 2021, to get into the nails – much to the chagrin of the inhabitants and environmental badociations.
On Friday, the calendar has suddenly accelerated: the administrative court requires the prefecture to end the 2019 deadline. The industrialist, who produces essential elements for the electronics industry, flat screens or batteries, has more than a year and a half to comply with environmental standards.
To justify its decision, the court puts in particular, "the existence of residual technical uncertainties as to the long-term environmental and health impact of substances discharged into the Mediterranean Sea for which the derogation was granted".
"A beautiful stage victory"
The court also looked at solid waste from the plant. Since it is no longer allowed to reject red mud, Alteo stores its bauxite residues on land, on the open-air site of Mange-Garri, a vast desolate space in the middle of the pine forest in Bouc-Bel-Air.
The Prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhône is ordered to commission a new impact survey on "the badessment of the cumulative environmental and health hazards and disadvantages of the Gardanne alumina plant and waste storage "on this site.
The world leader in specialty aluminas will also have to" carry out a new public consultation (…) with a view, if necessary, to the adoption of a prefectural decree containing Complementary prescriptions "concerning its sites.
Friday, the industrialist took note" with satisfaction "of the decisions of the administrative court," which do not cancel the authorization to operate granted to Alteo by the Prefectoral Order of 2015 , contrary to this requested by some applicants "
" The court has taken into consideration Alteo's constant technical progress in protecting the environment, "the group said. to give the decision "to shorten the duration of the derogation which had been granted to him."
"It is a beautiful stage victory", welcomed Olivier Dubuquoy, founder and spokesman of ZEA, the one of the badociations that carries the fight against Alteo. The environmentalists did not get the outright cancellation of the exemption for liquid discharges, which they asked for. But on the impact study, "the court said that the state did not do its job properly: it can no longer separate land pollution and marine pollution," he says.
League for the Protection of Birds (LPO), also involved in the procedure, for its part hailed "good news for all those who consider that the Mediterranean Sea is not a trash".
The manufacturer is also the subject of a criminal complaint for "endangering the lives of others" concerning discharges at sea and incidents related to the storage of solid waste. [19659003] 20/07/2018 18:47:12 –
Marseille (AFP) –
© 2018 AFP
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