Le Figaro Bordeaux
Will sandblasting ships continue to dig furrows in the Gironde estuary until 2043?
This 6,500 km² marine protected area is home to the Platin de Grave mining concession, operated by Granulats Ouest, which can extract up to 400,000 m³ of marine aggregates per year.
Materials from the disintegration of continental rocks, used to make concrete.
Despite a favorable opinion from the natural park management council delivered in April 2023, several voices continue to be raised to question this industrial activity, and are considering legal recourse.
Essential for many constructions,
“the extracted aggregates are often consumed regionally due to high transport costs”
, specifies the Higher Institute of Maritime Economics (ISEMAR).
They can also be used
“for coastal works, such as the re-silting of beaches or the construction of polders”
.
ISEMAR gives some examples:
“A house consumes 100 to 300 tonnes of aggregates, a hospital 20 to 40,000 tonnes, a kilometer of motorway 30,000 tonnes”
.
Many projects in France therefore require such operations.
However, according to a report from the Scientific Council of the Gironde Estuary (CSEG) delivered a month before the opinion of the management council, this renewal is part
of a dynamic of excessive growth in demand for aggregates and sand by the construction industry
.
For this organization, bringing together several universities and public institutes,
“the lack of control of this growth by the public authorities is problematic in a context where
the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions
requires a reduction in cement production”
.
The estuary is also in a
“poor”
ecological state, which questions
“the capacity of this ecosystem to sustainably support the accumulation of anthropogenic activities which impact it”
.
Also read: What is the impact of trawling on CO2 stored in the seabed?
A year later, the mobilization continues
Thursday, February 1, a new management council was held in Rochefort (Charente-Maritime), during which several associations, including the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO) once again denounced the renewal of the concession and expressed their intention to continue to mobilize to prevent its implementation.
The LPO
“alerted the Minister of Ecology,
Christophe Béchu
, of this unacceptable situation and of his intention to launch legal recourse against the administrative acts that he could be required to sign in the coming weeks”
.
The LPO recalls in particular that the estuary,
"and in particular its downstream part concerned by extraction"
, is
"an area identified as a nursery for numerous species of fish such as ceteau and sole, and possibly hosts the only area spawning ground for lean in France
.
According to the association,
“the continuation of such mining at the heart of a rich, complex ecosystem already strongly degraded by numerous anthropogenic pressures goes against the imperatives of ecological restoration of the estuary”
.
Despite this dispute, article L142-9 of the Mining Code authorizes Granulats Ouest to continue to exploit the seabed of the estuary, as long as no administrative decision prevents it.