A committee of inquiry of the Senate was formed Wednesday February 19 to study the responsibility of the State in the health and environmental damage linked to the exploitation of the old gold and arsenic mines of Salsigne, in Aude . Near this site, which is among the most polluted in France, at least 58 children have been overexposed to arsenic, according to the Occitanie Regional Health Agency.
At the initiative of the Aude senator, Gisèle Jourda, appointed rapporteur, this commission of inquiry will look into " the health and ecological problems linked to the pollution of the soils which have hosted industrial or mining activities and on the policies public and industrial rehabilitation of these soils ”, especially in Salsigne.
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Active from the beginning of the 20th century until 2004, the former mining complex, in the Orbiel valley, about fifteen kilometers north of Carcassonne, housed the largest gold mine in Europe and has was also the world's leading producer of arsenic.
Today, 1.2 million tonnes of highly toxic products, contained in 15 million tonnes of mining waste, are stored there in artificial hills or depots in the open air.
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During the October 2018 floods that left fifteen people dead in the Aude department, heavy rains washed out the storage areas and loaded the Orbiel and its tributaries with outsized quantities of arsenic and heavy metals.