an association announces that it will file a complaint against Veolia

Residents of Eroudeville denounce nuisances linked to the Veolia landfill, installed for 20 years. After years of discussions, the association Ensemble Against the Landfill Project announces that it will file a complaint.

The association Ensemble against the landfill project announces that it intends to file a complaint against Veolia, which manages the Éroudeville landfill (Manche), “Monday or Tuesday”, she specifies Friday January 5 to France Bleu Cotentin. This association criticizes this French multinational for not acting sufficiently to limit the nuisance generated by this site. Veolia does not deny the existence of nuisances but assures “the maximum to remedy it”.

“When it’s hot, we open the windows and the smell comes into my house”tells France Bleu Cotentin a resident of Montebourg, a town bordering Eroudeville. “We live with a hundred trucks crossing our cities every day, we can’t take it anymore”adds Monique Gosset, president of the association Together against the landfill project.

Since its creation, almost twenty years ago when the Éroudeville landfill opened, this association has denounced bad odors, truck brooms and other thousands of gulls that come to feed there. But for the first time, “we have decided to file a complaint for harm to our health”, explains Monique Gosset. The president of the association Together against the landfill project believes that there is “little chance” to win their case in court against the giant Veolia but “maybe with this, we will be heard”.

Awareness of nuisances

During a meeting last September, the landfill manager was ordered by the Manche prefecture to further limit odors, reports France Bleu Cotentin. Bruno Delpierre, director of the Normandy industrial units for the Veolia group, ensures that the company has “perfectly aware of certain nuisances” and do “the maximum to remedy it”. He announces the opening of a telephone line “early 2024” to allow “to residents of the site to report any odors”. “This will allow us to cross-check this information with the site’s operating data and help us identify the source and therefore process it as quickly as possible behind it”explains Bruno Delpierre.

Elected officials are also aware of the problem. “If I were a resident, I would react like them. After a certain time, these nuisances become unbearable. It has been going on for twenty years”reacts Édouard Mabire, vice-president of the Cotentin conurbation, in charge of waste collection and recovery. “The problem is that fifty years ago, each municipality had its own landfill and today, that is no longer the case”, he adds on France Bleu Cotentin. The communities of La Manche are looking for alternatives but, warns the elected official, “It may take time, five to six years minimum”.