Rumors, fantasies, reality?
In Saint-Jean-du-Thenney (Eure) and La Vespière (Calvados), the mayors and five landowners claim to have been approached by representatives of Sarpi, a subsidiary of the Veolia group specializing in the treatment and recovery of hazardous waste, for a landfill project.
An installation for so-called ultimate waste, the recoverable part of which has already been extracted or cannot be for technical or economic reasons.
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The meetings would date for some of more than a year ago but, since last January, the "news" began to make its way in the houses of the two communes.
"And our door is definitely closed for this kind of project," warns Alexandre Bonnard, a local resident who had his house built in the town and does not want to "see its price drop": "We don't want this project here. , nor elsewhere, ”insists the 41-year-old man.
With him, a group of residents on the verge of forming an association wants to “nip the project in the bud” and has already contacted several environmental protection associations.
Among these residents, a farmer claiming to have been approached for one of his plots.
Unbridled traffic of trucks, presence near a pumping station and the L'Orbiquet river, risks of soil pollution, fire ... the nuisances and risks envisaged would be innumerable according to these residents.
“And we just don't want a big industrial wart in the middle of our fields,” they explain.
"We must treat this waste where it is produced"
In this little corner of the Normandy countryside popular with tourists and backing onto the village of Orbec - whose town center is the subject of a large-scale revitalization program - the prospect of seeing highly polluting substances unloading also makes people cringe. teeth of local elected officials: “The ultimate waste would come from the metropolis of Rouen, Caen, the Paris region, Sarthe, laments Sylvain Ballot, mayor of La Vespière.
In a basin of rural life which, for its part, hardly produces any ”.
Jacques Le Baillif, mayor of Saint-Jean, agrees: “Right in the middle of their potential installations, there is agricultural land.
And these are not pieces of paper that they would bury even if it is supposedly safe.
Waste of this kind must be treated where it was produced ”.
The future of the Argences site, near Caen, in question
Each on their side, the two mayors took the lead in contacting the French multinational.
A visit to the town hall followed, a year ago for Sylvain Ballot, then in September 2020 and last January, for Jacques Le Baillif.
Over the months, the presentation to elected officials becomes more and more precise.
Veolia is studying, they understand, the possibility of opening a landfill site in their territory to anticipate the closure of that of Argences, near Caen, scheduled for 2030.
In Argences, there is one of the six sites of the Veolia subsidiary to be recognized as “installations classified for environmental protection” and which receive more than one million tonnes of waste each year.
“Ultimate mineral hazardous waste including that containing asbestos, lead paint or reinforced natural radioactive waste, non-hazardous waste or inert waste for development projects”, specifies the Veolia website.
For Veolia, officially no current project
In Saint-Jean-du-Thenney and La Vespière, everyone remains on the alert: “They were supposed to get in touch with me, but for the moment they haven't.
In my opinion, they come, they throw a firecracker and they wait to see how we react ”, comments the mayor of Saint-Jean-du-Thenney, Jacques Le Baillif.
Sylvain Ballot, aedile of La Vespière, has not heard from since September.
He wrote a letter to the sub-prefect, without obtaining an official response from the authorities for the moment.
Contacted by Le Parisien, Veolia let it be known this Friday, through its press service and Sophie Gaucher "that no final waste landfill site project is underway at La Vespière and Saint-Jean- du-Thenney ”.