They watered their vegetable gardens and filled their pools with polluted water for years: 9,000 residents of a district of Marseille were informed of this pollution with chromium VI, a carcinogen, six years after its debuts, we learned on Tuesday with associations.
"Only six years later, do we bother to alert us?" The mayor, he doesn't care about the northern districts! “, Gets excited Elisabeth Pelliccio, vice-president of the confederation of neighborhood interest committees (CIQ).
The 9,000 residents concerned received an official letter in the fall of 2019 informing them of this pollution, even though in 2014, the responsible company was fined by the courts.
The order falls six years later
Alerted in 2013 of chrome pollution near the PMA metal processing plant, the prefect "intervened with the mayor of Marseille so that he took, under his general police power, a restriction order of the use of non-potable water on the pollution sector ”, indicates the prefecture in an email.
Contacted Tuesday, the mayor of Marseille confirms to have published a decree prohibiting the consumption of water from wells in the Saint-Louis district on ... March 25, 2019. Why did it take so long to take this decree? "Time to get the results of the analyzes," replied the town hall.
These analyzes "have demonstrated that the chromium contents in groundwater are likely to generate risks for public health", according to the municipal decree.
A chemical classified as carcinogenic
"The pollution was discovered fortuitously in 2013," recalls Élisabeth Pelliccio, "because yellow water was streaming and we identified that it came from a leak in a tank of the PMA (Protection Métaux d'Arenc) factory".
The Regional Department for the Environment, Planning and Housing (Dreal) discovered concentrations of chromium VI or hexavalent chromium, a chemical classified as carcinogenic by the International Center for Research on Cancer.
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The authorized threshold is 0.1 mg / l. “However, the value in 2013 at 400 meters from the site was 127 mg / l, or 1000 times more! ", Denounces France nature environment 13.
Emergency stop
The prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhône specifies that it took on March 23, 2013 "an emergency order", before giving notice to the company that carried out tank sealing work.
According to the prefecture, the pollution did not impact drinking water. "Particular attention was paid to the possible contamination of private wells" which are used in particular to water the gardens or to fill the swimming pools in this very residential sector, she adds. Without convincing all associations.