The French Biodiversity Office (OFB) was asked this Saturday to take measurements of possible pollution of the Doubs following the fire at the Galvanoplast factory in Lorscourt, the prefecture announced.
Friday evening, around sixty firefighters, five vans and a chemical and technological risk vehicle were mobilized to put out a fire which affected this factory classified for environmental protection (ICPE). The fire ravaged three production lines using electroplating, a process aimed at covering an object with a layer of metal.
The retention tanks have overflowed
The intervention of the firefighters required the interruption of the electricity supply, leading to the shutdown of the wastewater treatment plant attached to the factory. “The retention tanks have overflowed. We had water spills in the small stream next door, which flows a few hundred meters into the Doubs.explained to AFP Saadia Tamelikecht, chief of staff of the prefect. “This morning we commissioned the OFB which will establish reports on the pollution of the river. The luck we had yesterday is that with the precipitation the Doubs had risen to five times the flow it had in the morning”she clarified, referring to a reduction in risk thanks to the dilution of pollutants.
According to Colonel Jean-Luc Potier, deputy departmental director of the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service of Doubs, the risk of air pollution has been avoided, thanks in particular to “favorable weather conditions” (lots of wind and rain). Regarding waterways, “there were discharges, but the flow of watercourses was very favorable, we can think that the products discharged, soda and acids, were diluted”he said.
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