the Métropole de Lyon takes industrialists Arkema and Daikin to court

In January, the Regional Health Agency revealed that the water consumed by 166,000 inhabitants of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes contained PFAS at a rate higher than the European reference threshold.

The Metropolis of Lyon took legal action on Tuesday March 19 to try to enforce the “polluter pays principle” to manufacturers Arkema and Daikin in the issue of PFAS, these “eternal pollutants” whose health consequences are worrying. The local authority claims that contamination with these substances requires costly work on its drinking water networks.

These two industrial groups, French and Japanese respectively, have been using these substances for many years in their factories in Pierre-Bénite, downstream from the Lyon metropolis, in an area nicknamed “the chemistry valley”.

The Métropole de Lyon summoned them for summary proceedings before the Lyon judicial court, and a hearing was set for April 9, she said. “We are taking civil action by summary proceedings to obtain a legal expert opinion, clearly citing Arkema and Daikin”declared the president of the Metropolis, the ecologist Bruno Bernard. “We have a certain number of elements to believe that they have contributed significantly to PFAS pollution, but it is not up to us to say whether it is totally, a little…”

“We are trying to establish responsibilities”

This summary is, according to him, “a first step”. If legal experts are commissioned and attribute the high levels of PFAS in running water to the discharges of the two manufacturers, the Métropole de Lyon intends to seek compensation. “We are seeking to establish responsibilities to try to compensate for the damage suffered,” explained Bruno Bernard.

In January, the Regional Health Agency revealed that water intended for the consumption of 166,000 inhabitants of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region contained PFAS at a rate higher than the European reference threshold. The ARS imposed corrective measures on around fifty municipalities, including four located in the Lyon metropolitan area.

Bruno Bernard estimates between 5 and 10 million euros the cost of the work necessary to get back below this threshold by installing activated carbon filters or new connections to dilute water from problematic catchments before it arrives in consumers’ taps.

Multi-billion dollar deals in the United States

PFAS, a family of more than 4,700 molecules, are virtually indestructible compounds that accumulate over time, hence their nickname “forever pollutants”. In the event of exposure over a long period, initial studies suggest that they may have effects on fertility or promote certain cancers.

In the United States, collective actions, led in particular by drinking water networks, have forced many manufacturers in recent years, including Chemours and 3M, to conclude agreements worth billions of dollars to put an end to lawsuits.

After the broadcast in 2022 of several journalistic investigations on the situation in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the regional authorities launched a control campaign and in particular required Arkema to no longer use PFAS by the end of 2024. The industrialist Since then, a filtration station has been installed to drastically reduce its emissions.

More broadly, France launched in 2022 “actions to structure its action in view of the growing concerns of PFAS” and in application of European directives, specifies the ARS website.