It is an old sea snake. Five years after France's condemnation by Brussels concerning the pollution of the Etang de Berre, four representatives of the European Commission and three from the Ministry of Ecology were on the site yesterday. Objective: to ensure that the French State meets the European requirements for the rehabilitation of the pond. For forty years, the EDF hydroelectric plant in Saint-Chamas has indeed discharged large quantities of fresh water into the salt lagoon, upsetting its ecosystem. After the European condemnation, the State had imposed on EDF in 2005 a maximum volume of freshwater and silt discharges per year, and the obligation to smooth them over time.
The experiment, which lasted four years, has just ended. "Smoothing has served absolutely nothing," says Serge Andréoni, senator-mayor (PS) of Berre-l'Etang and president of the public interest group for the rehabilitation of the pond of Berre (Gipreb). For more than twenty years, environmentalists and mayors around the water have been requesting a diversion of fresh water from Saint-Chamas to the Rhône, thanks to the construction of a canal. A project estimated between 1 and 2 billion euros ... Yesterday, neither the ministry, nor the European Commission had communicated on their visit or the assessment of the smoothing. "They came to listen, they didn't talk much," says Serge Andréoni. Local elected officials fear that the smoothing solution will last and that Brussels will put an end to the dispute with France. A return to square one. "There was a revival in 2004, since we fall back into the same mistakes," said Vincent Burroni, mayor (PS) of Châteauneuf-les-Martigues. Another wish of Gipreb, the reopening of the Rove tunnel, which would allow salt water to be injected from the Estaque to the Bolmont pond, then that of Berre. But then again, the project is dragging on. Experimental openings were initially planned for next year. They would be postponed for a year or two, say the elected officials. For Bernard Nicolini, ecologist of the Etang marin association, saving time is a strategy. "EDF is coming to the end of the concession for the hydroelectric operation of the Durance in 2015," he analyzes. She does not want to make investments that may not benefit her. »W
Laurent Berneron
20 minutes news source