It’s called a hell of a spring cleaning. Initiated for several months, the Bougeo Ar Pebr tip clean-up project is coming to an end. Located to the south-east of the island of Ouessant (Finistère), this natural fault has served “for more than seventy years and until the recent past” as a real public dump. Not really the image of the wild and preserved territory that we have of the island of Ouessant. Worried about the consequences of such wild dumping on the environment, the Iroise marine natural park has hired a full sinkhole cleanup and surrounding soils. “Communicating with the sea below, the accumulated waste is regularly detached and carried away by storms and tides”, specifies the marine park.
On the side of a cliff, the site has long served as a storage area for the inhabitants. West France evoked including old swinging bikes, car wrecks, a bus or even water heaters. In total, just over 1,700 tonnes of waste were sorted and removed, including 1,100 tonnes of metals, during this restoration project. Amount of the works: two million euros financed thanks to the France Relance plan, the European Union and the European recovery plan NextGenerationEU
Under the supervision of the French Office for Biodiversity, the work saved the fault from a probable collapse. “Over time, the site has become unstable. The sides of the abyss are sliding towards the sea, risking the potential dumping of 8,000 m3 of waste and rubble, in the waters of the Iroise Marine Nature Park, in the immediate vicinity of the Iroise National Nature Reserve”, specifies the park.
Other wild dumps will soon be treated, as promised by the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron during the One Ocean Summit organized in Brest.