the essential
The prefect of Lot-et-Garonne has once again given notice to the owner of the SCI du lac de Peyrat, located in the commune of Saint-Antoine-de-Ficalba in Lot-et-Garonne, to carry out work and a study on the lake dike. A surprising argument was put forward by the manager in a letter, the first in four years.
The almost summer weather pushed some young people, this Wednesday, June 5, to come and sunbathe on the shores of Lake Peyrat, below the town of Saint-Antoine-de-Ficalba. The weather is good, the sky is blue, they are far from imagining that an administrative battle is currently taking place around this body of water – private, let us remember – which has been left to decay. Since February, the State has been putting pressure on the owner of the lake, the SCI du lac de Peyrat, to carry out a diagnosis on the dam and lower the level by two meters. A complaint far from new, since the first letters were sent in 2020.
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“A safety danger for residents”: the prefecture puts pressure on to lower the level of a lake in Lot-et-Garonne
The diagnosis must be carried out to ensure “safety guarantees for the dam of the body of water”, while listing a series of proposals “to remedy the inadequacies of the structure, its maintenance or its monitoring with regard to the imperatives for the safety of people and property. Something that the owner did not do for four years, nor responded to letters from the administration. A small administrative – and geographical – annoyance for state services, the SCI is domiciled in Hauts-de-France, not far from the Belgian border. But the latest pressure and press articles seem to have had an effect since two responses were provided, in February and April – the first in four years.
The SCI du lac de Peyrat did not know that it owned… the lake dike
The owner – who had purchased the land and the lake with the aim of building a tourist site in 2015 – notified something explosive in his letters. According to him, he did not know that he was also the owner of the dike… of the lake which was at the heart of the SCI project. No luck, the land register indicates that the plots which are within the scope of the SCI du Peyrat do indeed contain the lake and its dam. The state services noted, in their report, that the owner had been careful not to clarify the situation for four years…
A new formal notice from the SCI du lac de Peyrat was therefore drawn up this Monday, June 3. The structure must “have the famous diagnosis carried out at its own expense by a design office”, according to a very precise timetable. The signature of the validated quote must be sent “within two months”. The diagnosis must, for its part, be carried out “within six months”. The schedule for any work must be established by the end of the year.
But there is more urgency, since the SCI must as quickly as possible “maintain the woody vegetation growing on the dike” and “replace the drain valve before June 30, 2024”. The level of the lake must also be lowered “by one meter below the level of the spillway and maintained at this level as much as possible”. And the prefecture will brandish “police measures” provided for in the Environmental Code if the most urgent interventions are not carried out by the owner of the lake.
