Alsace Nature denounces “an incredible disregard for future generations”

Final burial will begin despite strong local opposition to the project. The nature protection association fears significant pollution of the groundwater in the long term.

“We have a rather incredible contempt for future generations”, denounced Saturday February 17 on franceinfo Stéphane Giraud, director of the Alsace Nature association. The Council of State on Friday annulled the decision of the administrative court to suspend the prefectural decree authorizing the confinement of waste in the former Stocamine potash mine in Wittelsheim (Haut-Rhin). This decision paves the way for the resumption of permanent burial work. “We have an extremely significant risk of pollution” of “the largest water table in Europe which supplies millions of people”, he explained. Stéphane Giraud “bitterly regrets this decision which is more of a political decision than a legal decision”he said.

franceinfo: How do you react to the decision of the Council of State?

Stéphane Giraud: We bitterly regret this decision which is more of a political decision than a legal decision. They are explaining to us that by pouring tons of concrete around this waste, it will be easier to take it out tomorrow than to take it out today, when it is not surrounded by seven tons of concrete. We are walking on our heads in this matter. We have a rather incredible contempt, displayed by the State, for all the contradictory expertise that we have been able to provide, all the arguments that are put forward and for future generations.

Why are you opposed to this storage?

We share with the State the analysis that sooner or later, the waste below will come into contact with the largest water table in Europe which supplies millions of people, which is the support of the entire industry, all agriculture and a good part of Alsatian economic activities.

“It will pollute the water table even more than it is today. When we are responsible, we cannot leave the responsibility of managing this to future generations and hypothetical potential works.”

Stéphane Giraud, director of the Alsace Nature association,

at franceinfo

It is a mistake of the past that the State must take responsibility for. This is indeed the role of the State. This is why the prefectural decree provided for reversibility. All of this is now being brushed aside by our Minister of Ecology, saying that we are going to bury this waste permanently and in a few years we will send robots because we will know how to deal with robots that will be capable of destocking all that. This is to ignore the functioning of the Alsace water table, it is to ignore the risk that this poses. Above all, it’s not taking responsibility.

In your opinion, is the risk of contamination already proven?

Contamination already exists since block fifteen burned in the early 2000s and since then, we have 30,000 tonnes of a mixture of gold salts and waste that no one has ever analyzed in terms of toxicology. The risk is already present today. We don’t have any rises towards the water table, but the toxicity is well below. The fact that at some point we will have contact between the water in the groundwater and this waste no one contradicts it. We have an extremely significant risk of pollution.

Do you have the possibility to file an appeal?

We will pursue the legal avenues available to us. We are going to take a few days to carefully weigh the different options open to us. What confidence can citizens have in the word of the State if we continue on this path and persist in this way? The minister offered us contradictory expertise. He went back on his words.

The minister offered us a meeting supposedly in the fall. Despite our reminders, we still have not had an appointment. He doesn’t even bother to discuss with Alsatian citizens considering that he had met elected officials and that he had absolute knowledge on this issue. This is extremely disappointing.