the company is “an environmental offender”, according to the France Nature environment association

The Yara France company, in the Loire, has already been singled out for sulfuric acid leaks. If the prefecture wants to be reassuring about the environmental consequences, France Nature Environnement mentions “risks for wildlife”.

A nitrogen fertilizer factory of the company Yara France, located in Montoir-de-Bretagne, very close to Saint-Nazaire, was affected by an electrical outage on Friday March 29, leading to a discharge of industrial water laden with nitrogen. in the Loire, depending on the prefecture. For the president of France Nature Environnement Pays de la Loire, Jean-Christophe Gavallet, the company is a “multi-recidivist environmental offender”.

A site already pinned for sulfuric acid leaks

“He is someone who does not meet standards, does not invest to compensate for the dysfunctions identified by Dreal [Direction régionale de l’environnement, de l’aménagement et du logement], who is given formal notice by the prefect and does not react”, summarizes the representative of the environmental defense association.

Classified as Seveso high threshold, meaning a high risk of industrial accident, the Yara site, a Norwegian fertilizer manufacturer, has been singled out several times for sulfuric acid leaks. “There was a refusal on the part of the parent company to make investments on the site,” pointed out Jean-Christophe Gavallet.

Risks for wildlife, estimates France Nature Environnement

Rather than comply with standards, the multinational preferred to close its factory and set up on this site a huge storage platform for fertilizers imported from all over the world, indicates France Bleu Loire Océan. Friday March 29, the prefecture asked the company to take water samples from the Loire and the Yara discharges, ensuring that “the flows estimated at this stage by the operator do not lead to fear of environmental consequences in view of the river flows”.

“Yara cannot be trusted because she systematically places herself in a delinquent situation,” warns the president of France Nature Environnement Pays de la Loire. “The most serious is between the factory and the Loire, where there are marshes which will find themselves overloaded, with risks for wildlife,” he laments.