Loire-Atlantique: will the residents stop this quarry project?

THE opponents upon delivery exploitation of the Tahun quarryhas Guémené-Penfao (Loire-Atlantique), asked, Tuesday June 11, 2024, to the summary judge of the administrative court of Nantes of to suspend emergency the prefectural decree which was granted in June 2023 to the group Pigeon Careers.

Loire-Atlantique: associations and local residents mobilized against the quarry

The environmental defense association Brittany alivethat of animal protection AVES Francethe Bird Protection League (LPO) of Loire-Atlantique, the Collective Career Tahun And 18 residents are in fact convinced that the Argentré-du-Plessis quarry (Ille-et-Vilaine) will soon begin to empty the body of watercreated after the departure of the previous operator.

Their lawyer therefore began by recalling that this project consists of a “deepening” of the pit current of approximately “15 meters”, and that the investigation of this file was “particularly extended over time, from 2015 to 2023”, which is “uncommon”.

Faced with these works which are carried out “as the water goes”, it is therefore “difficult” for the lawyer of environmental defenders and local residents to know “at what moment” it is most appropriate to introduce a request for interim suspensiona procedure where it is necessary to demonstrate to the judge that there is a ” emergency ” to suspend the contested decision. However, “the evolution of the site” in recent times suggests that “we are approaching” this “essential” stage which is thewhen emptying the site.

Loire-Atlantique: new protected species?

Environmental defenders and local residents therefore have “an interest in acting” now: if the prefectural decree were censored in two years by the administrative court of Nantes, this site today “still attractive for protected species » would be altered.

Me Thomas Dubreuil therefore insisted on “the very old data” on which the State relied to give its green light: they date back to “2013”, i.e. “10 years” before the contested decision. The “quality” of this file is thus “out of step with the level of quality that can be found in other projects” subsequent to the opinion of the Council of State of December 9, 2022, which had “clarified” the conditions granting “exemptions” to the ban on the destruction of protected species.

In addition, members of the collective Tahun Career “having naturalistic skills” detected protected species which did not appear in the 2013 data. To these “gaps” was added a ” procedural defect since the Local Environment Commission (CLE) was not consulted.

Rave parties on the site, which served as a dump

The lawyer for those opposing the reactivation of the quarry also refuted that the site could be considered “anthropized” – that is to say colonized by humans – even if in the past it has welcomed “people rave parties »a “illegal dumping”… “But rave parties are not comparable to constant passage of trucks and the earth movements of a quarry,” underlined Me Thomas Dubreuil.

The collective he defends also “made the effort to go see hydrogeological experts ». They concluded that the project would “lead to drying up of sources“. “We are told that the waste that will be stored is inert and that it does not present no riskbut the controls can be faulty… We place ourselves in the prism of a maximum prevention » insists the lawyer for environmental defenders and local residents.

80 trucks per day in Conquereuil?

Me Thomas Dubreuil also recalled that this reactivation of the Tahun quarry will lead to a “very heavy trafficin the village of Conquereuil », with “14 passages on average per day” of trucks. A figure “smoothed over the year”, which means that this traffic could theoretically increase “up to 70 or 80 heavy goods vehicles per day”.

The representative of the prefect of Loire-Atlantique, for his part, agreed that the duration of the investigation of the file had been “very extended”, in particular because of “the Covid-19 epidemic”. Two “complementary” public inquiries also had to be carried out after that of 2019, which concluded with “a favorable opinion with reservations”.

“We cannot start from the postulate that there will be cheating and that the Pigeon Carrières group will defraud » , relates the representative of the prefect about the potential “dangers” of the “waste” which will be stored. “There will be controls for that. »

The emptying will be “very gradual”

The quarryman’s lawyer, for her part, considered that there was no no emergency to rule, since the emptying of the body of water will be “very progressive”. “Four phases are planned over 15 years and phase 1 will not take place in the coming months,” she promised. THE clearing of landis “completed since the end of August 2023”.

She also refuted the “punctual” nature of the anthropization of this “very polluted, very busy and very disturbed” sitealthough the site is theoretically prohibited from public access . She also cited the “countless piles of trash that litter” the banks of the body of water, not to mention the partygoers at rave parties.

“Strong suspicions of pollution”

“We have the impression that it is a natural body of water, with a beautiful turquoise color, but it is not water conducive to colonization by amphibians: its pH is acidic, there is has strong suspicion of pollution “, she stressed.

Finally, the quarryman’s lawyer questioned the technical “skills” of the members of the collective who discovered notnew protected specieson the site. Me Thomas Dubreuil responded that the LPO, Bretagne vivant and AVES France are approved by the Minister of the Environmentto take legal action in this type of case.

The summary judge, who has reserved his decision, will issue his order in the coming days.

GF (PressPepper)

Follow all the news from your favorite cities and media by subscribing to Mon Actu.