Par
Coralie Maux-Renard
Published on
Nov 5 2024 at 10:00 a.m
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Seeing the publication of Intercom Bernay Lands of Normandy on Facebook two weeks ago on the new Grand-Camp wastewater treatment plant (Eure), a former resident could not refrain from commenting.
“And everyone is happy!” After having stuck the m**** of his fellow citizens 30 m from the gable of the first house. Well done ! “, he wrote. Text which was quickly deleted by the Intercom.
A life project close to the field
Former owner ofa house along the route de Brogliethe former resident and several of his former neighbors fought for years not to see this new station take shape in front of their homes.
“I bought this house in 2004, it was the old village bar. With my wife, we worked for ten years to redo the 200 m²,” he says.
By buying this house and completely renovating this old bar in ruins, the couple thought they would spend happy days there and then resell it with a nice capital gain.
“For us, there was no worry, behind this house, it was a valley with a thalweg », Describes the former resident. A thalweg is a line which follows the bottom of a valley, a small valley or a ravine.
A “very often dry space potentially liable to flooding during heavy rains”, according to a notice from the Regional Directorate for the Environment, Planning and Housing (Dreal).
For 10 years, the former resident and his partner made frequent trips back and forth to make it habitable and pleasant.
A lack of transparency
Residents learned in 2013 that the municipality intended to rebuild the dilapidated wastewater treatment plant “ by the press or by the neighborhood.”
They were not against building another station, but were opposed to it being under their windows. “A reed station, we don't do that next to homes,” complains the former resident, who did not suffer from any nuisance with the old station.
My anger towards these people is immense. I blame them for doing things sneakily, without asking our opinion.
“The commune was vast, there was the solution of putting it behind the cemetery and the church », Indicates the former Grand Campois. Soil studies were carried out in 2016.
According to an article from the Norman Awakening at the time, water infiltration would have been less good and the station would have cost €90,000 more.
“We went to see the elected officials, we explained to them why we were against the project, they didn't want to hear about itsays the former resident. This is an abuse of power. At no point did they worry about whether they were going to ruin families and life plans. »
Years of trials
To not let yourself be fooled, five local residents appealed to the administrative court of Bernay. After more than two years, justice ruled in favor of the residents, whose houses were 30 m from the fielda May 2016.
“The court was opposed to the construction and recommended this type of infrastructure to 150 or 200 m from the house », relates the former resident. The municipality then appealed and obtained the right to build.
“We felt really wronged, because we quickly understand that our house is no longer worth anything. We said to ourselves 'either we sell at a discount, or we sign to spend our lives next to a sewage treatment plant',” he says.
The family's house was valued at between €220,000 and €250,000 before the resort reconstruction project. “We bought it for less than €100,000 and had done more than €100,000 of work,” he estimates.
In 2018, before the new station was fully operational, the couple decided to sell your property. “We sold it for €125,000, we had no choice,” he says.
New nuisances
The former resident has maintained contact with his former neighbors, several of whom had already testified in March 2016 in our columns. One of them is one of the local residents who remained.
“She told me she had spent a hellish summer. She has to let the doors close in the evening and cannot go on the terrace, there are so many mosquitoes and flieswhich was not there before,” reports the former resident.
The local resident also spoke to him about bad smells that the wind carries and the presence of certain rodents. “It’s becoming unlivable,” relates the former resident.
What the law says
On the legal side, a decree of July 21, 2015 relating to collective sanitation systems and non-collective sanitation installations provided for a distance of 100 m between a wastewater treatment plant and homes. This decree was amended in July 2020 and no longer provides for compulsory distancing. Establishments “are designed and located so that their operation and maintenance minimize the emission of odors, the development of mosquito breeding grounds likely to transmit vector-borne diseases, noise or mechanical vibrations likely to compromise health and the safety of the neighborhood and constitute a nuisance to its tranquility. »
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