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Video duration: 5 min
Cévennes: old mines pollute nature
In the Cévennes, environmental and health contamination is attributed to old lead and zinc mines. Soil pollution that bothers residents.
(France 2)
In the Cévennes, environmental and health contamination is attributed to old lead and zinc mines. Soil pollution that bothers residents.
Thousands of hectares of green forests in the heart of the Cévennes. But here nature is poisoned. Municipalities have been contaminated with heavy metals since the closure of the last mines, fifty years earlier. For one resident, it must have been the house of her dreams, surrounded by streams, in the middle of the forest. But when she and her husband decided to build in 2011, they had no idea that their land was loaded with toxic metals. His house was built a few meters from a lead and zinc mine.
Closed in 1971, the old site is located between three municipalities. In May 2024, its last operator was required to clean up the most polluted areas. Nearly 2 million tons of waste were left here. In this former ore cleaning area, metals rise to the surface creating toxic pools.
