Arguing the deterioration of the state of the mine, the prefecture of Haut-Rhin had authorized in January the launch of preparatory work to the closure
Le Monde with AFP
The preparatory work for the closure of the hazardous waste storage site from Stocamine to Wittelsheim, in the Haut-Rhin barely started that they are suspended. Provisionally.
“The work is suspended until the court, which will decide within a close period, examines the legality at the bottom of the decree”, taken by the prefect of Haut-Rhin in January, announced on Wednesday May 25, the Strasbourg administrative court. It had been seized on May 10 as part of a procedure in summary of the European community of Alsace (CEA) and the Alsace Nature association. A new audience on the merits concerning these works will therefore take place by the end of 2022. “There is a serious doubt as to the legality of the decision to allow the continuation of the work, in particular the backfilling of block 15 and The completion of certain barriers of containment of the galleries of the mine, “argued the administrative court in a press release.
Near the water table in Alsace, the largest in Europe, this former potash mine, whose galleries gradually fall, still has 550 meters underground, some 42,000 tonnes of hazardous industrial waste (asbestos, arsenic …) but non -radioactive, buried at the turn of the 2000s.
the state of the mine in question
Arguing the deterioration of the state of the mine, the prefecture of Haut-Rhin had authorized in January the launch of preparatory work for closure, although a litigation on the background is still in progress as for the final storage or not waste.
This work started on May 10, entrusted to the BTP Bouygues group, relate to the construction of waterproof concrete caps. Then in June was planned the final backfilling of the “block 15”, where a fire had occurred in 2002 which ended the addition of new waste. Since that date, the future of Stocamine, which was originally supposed to remain non-final storage, is a source of disagreements and uncertainties.
After having a lot of procrastinates, the State, in the person of the Minister of Ecological Transition at the time, Barbara Pompili, had decided in January 2021 in favor of a final landfill of the remaining waste. But administrative justice canceled the prefectural decree in October 2021 to the great satisfaction of communities and environmental defenders claiming that a maximum of waste is withdrawn until the galleries are accessible.
A new decree must still be made after an opinion of the environmental authority and a public inquiry. “It’s been twice that we win the battle against the State, but we are far from having won what we want, namely the destocking of all waste for the protection of the water table,” reacted to from the agency France-Presse M
e François Zind, lawyer for Alsace Nature.
Safety the water table
For its part, the CEA said it was “satisfied” with the decision of the administrative court. Pending the decision on the merits, “the proposal for compromise of the European community of Alsace [confinement of galleries in poor condition and block 15 and withdraws as much waste possible] still holds”, she stressed in A press release, hoping to “be able to move forward positively in the resolution of this file” with the arrival of Amélie de Montchalin as Minister of Ecological Transition.
The Potasse mines of Alsace (MDPA), operator of Stocamine, did not wish to comment on this court decision, which they will “implement”. During the hearing held on May 19 before the administrative court, Céline Schumpp, amicable liquidator of MDPA, had said that he was “in a precipitation, but in security” because “the mine closes and if We want to secure the water table, we must confine “.
Stocamine is also also the subject of a criminal investigation concerning the exact nature of the buried waste. The 2002 fire took two months to be completely extinguished. However, the regulations normally prohibited any “flammable product” on the site. In addition, a 2016 public inquiry report noted that the filling of Stocamine galleries with the water from the water table of Alsace was “inevitable”, within seventy to three hundred years.