The file had to be buried, the waste buried.
But justice decided otherwise.
This Friday, the Administrative Court of Appeal of Nancy ruled on the prefectural decree which authorized the burying "for an unlimited period" of hazardous waste on the Stocamine site in Wittelsheim (Haut-Rhin).
Result: the works are for the moment suspended because, according to the Court of Appeal, the company of the Mines de potasse d'Alsace (MDPA), which exploits Stocamine, “does not justify having financial capacities enabling it to carry out to unlimited exploitation ”.
Among other things, MDPA would not be able to "assume all the requirements" related to the burial of the 42,000 tonnes of non-radioactive toxic waste entrusted to it, mainly asbestos, arsenic and mercury. .
The Court of Appeal was seized by the Grand-Est region, the European Collectivity of Alsace, the municipality of Wittenheim and the Alsace Nature association in September.
A controversial site
This decision puts aside a series of works intended to perpetuate the installation of these substances, which rest above the Rhine water table, one of the largest underground drinking water reserves in Europe.
And give time to opponents of the project.
Read alsoStoStocamine: is buried waste really dangerous?
While some of the improvements intended for the sustainability of the site have already been carried out, the first concrete pourings, aimed at forming impermeable plugs preventing access to waste, were expected at the beginning of November.
Stocamine has been controversial for years.
The operation of the site was authorized in 1997 for 30 years by a first prefectural decree, in order to convert this end-of-life potash mine into an underground industrial landfill, and to store 320,000 tonnes of hazardous waste there, at 535 meters. depth.
Multiple twists and turns
The supply of waste was interrupted in 2002 after a fire in one of the storage sites, when more than 44,000 tonnes had already been lowered. Since then, studies have multiplied to highlight the dangers involved in the withdrawal. toxic waste but also the risk of pollution of the environment, and of the water table in Alsace.
Under François Hollande's five-year term, the state had decided to withdraw 93% of mercury waste, and to contain the rest of the waste.
A prefectural decree was issued in March 2017 to authorize the “unlimited” containment of waste.
Faced with the discontent of local communities and environmental associations, the State once again considered withdrawing additional waste, before deciding in January 2021 on the final containment of the waste, on the decision of the Minister of Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili .
Saving time for storage opponents
"I ask that an evaluation be quickly carried out on the possibility of continuing the securing work, to avoid ending up being unable to work at the bottom, due to the collapse of the galleries", Raphaël Schellenberger, deputy for Haut-Rhin and co-rapporteur of a fact-finding mission on Stocamine, who spoke out in favor of destocking the site immediately reacted.
For Frédéric Bierry, president of the European Collectivity of Alsace, also opposed to landfill, "the determination of elected officials and local associations has borne fruit".
He announced that he wanted to bring together very soon the stakeholders in the file (the State, region, M2A, the municipalities and associations concerned ...), to "move towards waste extraction".
It would still be necessary for the case to go in this direction.
For now, the Court of Appeal is simply asking the Prefect "a new assessment of the financial guarantees provided by the operator".
What relaunch the fight of opponents to the storage mine.
