Tons of fish were dead.
On the night of April 9 to 10, 2020, the rupture of a dike at the Tereos plant in Escaudoeuvres (Nord), which retained beet washing water, led to the spillage of 100,000 m3 of blackish liquid, essentially organic matter, particularly in the Scheldt, which crosses France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
The survey had concluded that there had been a "50% reduction in the number of species and 90% in the numbers".
During the hearing, this pollution was qualified as being “the most important that the Scheldt has known for more than a century”.
The sugar giant Tereos, owner of the Béghin-Say brand, was sentenced in Lille to a fine of 500,000 euros and more than 9 million in damages.
The Walloon region will notably receive 8.86 million euros for “ecological damage”, according to the criminal court which recognizes the “negligence” of the group in the maintenance of a dike.
For its part, Tereos had pleaded "a chain of responsibilities or multiple responsibilities" of public and private actors" And in particular of the design office responsible for controlling the basins which had not underlined the urgency of an intervention .
The lawyer had also put forward a “lack of administrative supervision”, before the accident, of the installations in question.
"We are obviously satisfied with the severity of the sanction," responded Corinne Lepage, a lawyer from the Wallonia region who was claiming 17 million euros.
And to add: "I am for my part satisfied to see that the ecological damage is once again recognized and compensated".
For his part, Tereos' lawyer acknowledged that the sanctions were "severe" even that the amount allocated to the civil parties was "very much lower than the requests that were made".