The town hall’s threat bore fruit. The prefecture assured, Monday, that it had initiated the securing of a former chemical factory, Synthexim, installed for 120 years in Calais, in Pas-de-Calais. During the summer, the site had been the scene of smoke releases linked to products reacting with water. These incidents had caused concern among local residents and the municipality, Synthexim being located in an area classified as Seveso high threshold.
Thus, at the beginning of September, the mayor of Calais, Natacha Bouchart, decided to file a complaint against X concerning the decontamination of this industrial site, according to The voice of the North. Four months earlier, on May 3, the Orléans commercial court announced the liquidation of this factory which manufactured active ingredients for the pharmaceutical industry. Around a hundred employees found themselves unemployed.
Ongoing study regarding cyanide removal
A monitoring committee was therefore organized at the beginning of October. It was about securing the Synthexim site. A first assessment was presented. According to Ademe (Environment and Energy Management Agency), “all products from the amphetamine family were removed from the site and disposed of in a duly authorized facility in the presence of the National Energy Agency. Medicine Safety (ANSM) and a bailiff”.
Furthermore, the prefecture announces the bromine withdrawal operation in the coming weeks and an ongoing study concerning the withdrawal of cyanide. “Other products and waste must be extracted and destroyed, failing which they cannot be recycled by the company represented by the judicial liquidator,” explains the authority. A next monitoring committee will take place in December to take stock. Hoping for more reassuring signs than the smoke signals of this summer.
Measures made public
To reassure the population, the report of the meeting of October 9 and the presentation prepared by Ademe will soon be posted online on the commission’s website: https://www.css-littoralnpdc.fr/espace-documentaire /_sft_doc_type=cr&_sft_doc_theme=css-de-calais