The State condemned for the presence of pesticides in water in Mayenne

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At the request of associations of the movement France Nature Environmentthe administrative court of Nantes has just required the prefecture of Mayenne that it completes the decree of July 7, 2017 by which it defined the “water points” near which the application of pesticides is prohibited. This is particularly the case on the Country of Meslay-Grez.

This judgment rejects the overly limited definition retained by the decree, not allowing for the proper protection of water resources.

Presence of pesticides in water

To deal with the “generalized contamination of aquatic environments”, a ministerial decree has required since 2006 non-treatment areas (ZNT): areas at the edge of water points, on which it is prohibited to spread pesticides.

To be effective, this measure must concern all water pointsfrom the largest (rivers, lakes, ponds, etc.) to the smallest (watershed headwaters, ditches, etc.). The environments are in fact interconnected.

Until 2017, this protection concerned all elements of the hydrographic network on the IGN map, an imperfect map but showing numerous water points and in particular the watercourses at the head of the watershed.

Exclusion of “many small watercourses at the head of the watershed”

“Only, here it is: since the modification of this decree on May 4, 2017 and under strong pressure from part of the agricultural profession, reluctant to these ZNTs, the department prefects of Pays de la Loire excluded the IGN map to refer to a map of watercourses established by the state services. Result: a significant length of previously protected watercourse no longer benefits from any protection, explains Jean-Marc Lallozpresident of the Federation for the Environment in Mayenne (FE53).

» In our department, and despite mapping work that we consider interesting, this resulted in exclude very many small watercourses at the head of the watershed. «

Considering themselves “not heard during the consultation”, FNE Pays de la Loire and FE53 had asked the prefecture to please complete its decree by taking into account the entire hydrographic network of Mayenne. The prefecture having refused to grant this request, the associations seized the administrative court of Nantes.

A judgment ruling in favor of the associations

By a judgment of November 5, 2024, the court ruled in favor of the associations by ordering the prefect to complete her decree within 3 months in order to “integrate into the definition of water points all the watercourses defined in article L. 215-7-1 of the environmental code and all the hydrographic elements represented by solid and dotted blue lines on the IGN 25/1,000 scale map.

The court thus upholds the violation of the ministerial decree and judges non-regulatory mapping of state services. He also considers that this decree disregards the principle of non-regression of environmental regulations.

The solution that emerges from this judgment had also been previously adopted for the four other departments of the region.

Orders “against the grain”

« Water pollution by pesticides in our region is widespreadleading to additional processing costs for communities and therefore for all taxpayers. Above all, it generates significant risks for human health,” the associations believe.

“In this context, the decrees adopted in Mayenne as in the rest of the region were going against the tide of environmental issues and the expectations of the population.

“Like the affair of the good neighborly charters, which allowed farmers to reduce the application distances to be respected from homes with the blessing of the prefects, this file illustrates the place occupied by the intensive agriculture lobby with local state representatives, protests Jean-Christophe Gavallet, president of FNE Pays de la Loire. We will be very attentive to the proper implementation of this judgment and hope that the next decisions adopted on the topic of pesticides will finally demonstrate the voluntarism of the State on this public health issue. »

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