A new crude oil leak was detected at the TotalEnergies refinery in Donges this Saturday, November 23. 15 m³ of crude oil which spilled into the Loire, iridescent 500 m² of water. A local residents’ association is calling for the installations to be brought up to standard “in accordance with existing environmental rules”.
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“The leak materialized as a 2 cm breach on a weld bead creating a net flow” in the Loire, announced the prefecture on Saturday November 23, adding that “dupon the occurrence of the event, the section of the line concerned was isolated“.
A water surface of around 500 m² in the Loire was iridescent.
On January 2, 2021, Totalenergies announced “some iridescence” in Loire at wharf 6 announced following a leak.
For its part, the prefecture indicated “the release of a few liters of oil in the Loire”.
READ ALSO. Donges: crude oil leak at the refinery, no environmental impact but Total will have to be held accountable
“In reality this leak resulted in the flow into the ground of 300,000 liters of product responsible for pollution over an area of approximately 10,000 m² and groundwater,” denounces the Donge environmental association of risk zones and the PPRT.
On December 21, 2022, a gasoline leak occurred in one of the refinery’s tanks. 800,000 liters contained “in a retention tank without a sealing system” had exposed the population to “concentration rate of benzene exceeding for several days the toxicological reference value for this exposure”
Results known by TotalEnergies from January 2023, but which the industrialist hid for more than 20 months.
READ ALSO. Hydrocarbon leak at the Donges refinery in December 2022. TotalEnergies hid the results of a study on air pollution
On September 10, a flaming leak was detected on a hydrogen line at the refinery.
“A rather minor event”, Totalenergies had then announced.
“Today, this new leak does not escape the immediate comments usually
reassuring from the operator and the Prefecture, often denied in the following days”, denounces the residents’ association after last Saturday’s leak.
“To assert that the measurements taken did not detect the presence of volatile organic compounds is risky if we do not specify where the measurements were taken and whether or not the sensors were upwind.”
Simply stating “that the iridescent waters should disperse naturally and be carried back, by the action of the wind, onto the banks”, ignores respect for the environment.
AEDZRPPress release
The AEDZRP believes that “the State must put an end to its complacency towards unscrupulous industrialists who constantly claim transparency that they do not have and demand that installations be brought up to standard in accordance with existing environmental rules.”
The association also requests “that a dedicated site be set up reporting on accident reports and on-site and off-site environmental measurements which is accessible to every citizen”.
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