an alert documentary on the military pollution of French soil and seabed

Shells, grenades, torpedoes… Throughout the 20th century, hundreds of tons of weapons were dumped into the oceans, voluntarily or not, or buried in the ground. For more than a year, Martin Boudot, Mathilde Cusin and Manon de Couët, journalists from the program “Vert de rage” investigated the pollution generated by this military waste. They report on their investigations in the documentary Weapons, the toxic legacy, broadcast Monday May 27 on France 5.

If the vast majority of submerged weapons are found in ships sunk during the war and never refloated due to the risk of explosion, the French army has also long practiced dumping expired munitions at sea. The process would have continued until the early 2000s and contaminated, over time, dozens of sites.

Major Marcel Laurence, now retired, ended his career as captain of The Faithfula boat of the French fleet whose mission was to deliberately dump weapons and ammunition that had become unusable.

“It was something common. I experienced ammunition flooding almost every year. They played with fire, and then with explosives.”

Major Marcel Laurence

In the documentary “Guns, the toxic legacy”

In 1997, The Faithful was thus responsible for throwing 1,400 grenades into a pit located 11 km off the coast of Cherbourg (Manche), when a serious accident occurred. “I heard a dry explosion, different from underwater explosions, says the major, which made me immediately think that a grenade had exploded. (…) I didn’t have time to think for long: in three minutes, the boat was sunk.” Five crew members, out of the twenty-two people on board, lost their lives.

The sea has thus become a particularly dangerous trash bin, becauseSubmerged munitions, even expired, present the risk of exploding or releasing toxic products. The soils and rivers of the Grand-Est, or Lake Gérardmer, in the Vosges, are also contaminated by heavy metals released by buried weapons which, over time, erode and leak. TNT, arsenic, nickel, cobalt, lead, titanium, among others, were detected during analyses.

Front line during the First World War, the Butte de Vauquois, in the Meuse, is home to a military camp which also serves as a weapons storage space.

A danger to the health of local residents. “For the moment, there is no compulsory and regulatory research on these explosive residues in France. deplores Daniel Hubé, geologist at the geological and mining research office, who has been studying this military pollution for almost fourteen years. “VSThese are persistent pollutions. “Once it’s in the ground, you’ll have it for centuries. It won’t move.”assures the researcher.

The “Vert de rage” team had tap water from homes in the region analyzed. The results are clear: out of 20 samples taken, 17 contain explosive residues, some of which exceed the recommendations of the American health agency, the only existing standard to date.

The documentary, Weapons, the toxic legacy, from the series “Vert de rage”, directed by Martin Boudot, Mathilde Cusin and Manon de Couët, is broadcast Monday May 27 at 9:05 p.m. on France 5 and on the france.tv platform.