It is a setback for the prefect of Haut-Rhin and the State. The administrative court of Strasbourg prohibited this Thursday the realization of the first work of containment of toxic waste stored on the site of Stocamine in Wittelsheim (Haut-Rhin), which the State wants them to remain permanently stored, unlike the communities and environmental organizations. The prefect of Haut-Rhin “could not, as a precaution, authorize waste containment work for an unlimited period”, announced the court in a press release.
As a reminder, the prefect had issued, in January 2022, an order imposing on the operator of the site, the company MDPA (of which the State is the sole shareholder), to implement certain works “necessary for the containment of the waste”. The political decision to permanently leave these 43,000 tonnes of waste underground was taken in January 2021 by the government, but no legal framework currently authorizes the carrying out of containment work. The storage of waste at Stocamine is authorized for 30 years by another prefectural decree, dating from 1997, which still provides that at the end of the period, “the waste must be removed”.
Degradation of the site
Entered by the association Alsace Nature, the CLCV association and the European Community of Alsace, the administrative court of Strasbourg therefore considered that the prefect “does not justify a reason of general interest to carry out such operations urgently”. The court also considered the specific case of “block 15”, a gallery where a fire broke out in 2002, which, according to the prefecture, justifies the confinement of the waste that is still there. This fire had stopped the use of Stocamine, only a few years after its commissioning.
But the magistrates question the fact “that the hypothesis of a mechanical intervention in this block [pour enlever les déchets] has been seriously evaluated. At the hearing, in December, the representatives of the State had tried to justify the need for containment work by the degradation of the site, which complicates the removal of the waste. The lawyer for Alsace Nature François Zind had told him that the lack of maintenance of the site contributed to this degradation. In an expert report commissioned by the MDPAs from the Geos design office, the latter stresses that certain installations “must be subject to reinforced maintenance every 5 or 6 years”. “There has been no major maintenance for over seven years. This explains the currently highly degraded state of the area,” continues Geos.
The judgments rendered Thursday “do not call into question the obligation to carry out maintenance and safety work on the mine and the waste storage facility”, the court also stressed. “Everything suggests that the deterioration of the galleries is attributable to the lack of maintenance by the State”, estimated François Zind. Solicited, the MDPA company did not wish to speak. At the same time, a new waste storage authorization application file “for an unlimited period”, submitted by MDPA, is currently in the examination phase. A public inquiry is expected in the coming months. Most local authorities (departmental council, regional council) and several Alsatian parliamentarians have already expressed their opposition to final storage, calling for the removal of as much waste as possible.