The company Satys, specializing in aeronautics, wants to set up a factory next year in Marignane, less than 300 meters from homes. Justine Giordano has just bought a house, not far from the future factory, with her husband and her 3 children. She is worried: “You have a company nursery which is 300 meters from the project, two colleges, a high school, shops. Is the economic impact of the company worth it in the face of all the worries that this will generate for the populations? ”.
A concern shared with many residents. Especially since this area is already very polluted by industrial activity. “We fear smoke pollution, because the mistral is coming in our direction. And we are also afraid of soil pollution ”, fears Nicolas Arnoux, a local resident who is very close to the future plant.
If the residents are so suspicious, it is because there are precedents. The eye of 20h revealed this scandal to you at the beginning of 2020, in Marseille. A leak of chromium VI, a carcinogen, into the city’s non-potable water. The Satys company bought the plant responsible for the pollution. And today, she plans to use the same product, chromium VI, at the Marignane site. It’s written in black and white in a report we got. The company even writes that two products can pose a problem for the environment: hydrochloric acid and chromium VI.
Faced with such risks, elected officials of the metropolis who had granted 100,000 euros in public subsidies to help the establishment of the company, are backtracking. This is the case of the mayor of Gignac La Nerthe, in the immediate vicinity of the future Seveso factory. “I’m doing my culpa on this issue. There is also a fault on my part which did not pay enough attention to what was behind this deliberation ”.
Contacted, the company Satys affirms that on the dangerous products it uses, the thresholds are regulatory. “We will use chromium VI for two years, but in 2024 it will be banned. On hydrochloric acid, the levels that are released are less harmful than 50 private chimneys that release fine particles and badly burnt wood. This is the reality “.
In France, 1312 sites are classified SEVESO Since 2019, 219 accidents have been identified as explosions or fumes from dangerous products. Results: 236 injured. Latest incident to date, a college in Bordeaux. last October 14. According to the authorities, about twenty students slightly intoxicated because of a toxic cloud that would come from a Seveso factory. The product in question: hydrochloric acid, the same substance that will be used in Marignane.