Should we definitively confine 42,000 tonnes of toxic waste in the former Wittelsheim mine in the Haut-Rhin region at the risk of one day polluting Europe's largest water table? The State launches, Tuesday, a new consultation on this project called Stocamine. Some local actors consider the approach illusory in the face of a decision already taken.

The poster has been posted in the town halls of Wittelsheim and the surrounding area: until May 10, citizens are invited to give their opinion on the project to pour concrete in the galleries to permanently prevent access to waste (arsenic, asbestos, cyanide, lead ...) located under the water table of Alsace. Initially, waste storage, presented as "reversible", was not to continue after 2027.

Public opinion in favour of destocking

Led by the company Mines de potasse d'Alsace (MDPA), of which the State has been the sole shareholder since 2005, the Stocamine project has already been the subject of three consultations. Each time, the opinions of the public were mostly in favor of destocking. Each time, on the basis of scientific studies, the State has taken the decision to contain the waste, agreeing only to remove the majority of the mercury, of which there is still more than a ton at the bottom.



"Public consultations have apparently been marked by a difficulty of dialogue and listening," says a 2018 parliamentary report. "It was," estimates, in a less nuanced style, an actor of the consultations of the time. "It served to ease the conscience of a decision that was already made, but that does not correspond in any way to the recommendations made."

Authorization annulled by the courts

At the end of the consultations, the State had authorized the extension of the storage, and therefore the containment of the waste, for an "unlimited period". But the authorization, contested by the Departmental Council and local associations, was deemed contrary to the environmental code and canceled by the courts in 2021.

Encouraged by the judges, the elected representatives of the territory expected a change in policy. The government preferred to maintain its position and modify the environmental code by a decree signed by the Minister of the Environment, Barbara Pompili, between the two rounds of the 2022 presidential election.

Nevertheless, the administrative court of Starsbourg had prohibited the first works of containment of toxic waste, in January 2023. So, to concretize its choice, the State is launching a new public inquiry on the "unlimited" storage of 42,000 tons of toxic waste, with a view to a new authorization in the coming months.

"The die is stacked"

"The public inquiry is a completely out of step procedure in the face of the environmental crisis we are experiencing, but for the administration, it remains an incredibly effective tool," says historian Frédéric Graber, a researcher at the CNRS. It is a way of neutralizing any opposition, while legitimizing a project. This makes it possible to say that citizens have consented to the action, even if they protest. »

"Politically, I have fears about the democratic aspect, about the real consideration of our opinions. The dice are stacked, "abounds Philippe Aullen, spokesman for the collective Destocamine, bringing together the associations opposed to the project. However, he invites "as many people as possible" to participate: "even if hope is slim, it is important to express oneself". Asked to know on what aspects the public inquiry could evolve the project, the prefecture of Haut-Rhin refused any interview.

In the meantime, the outcome of the discussions is hardly in doubt. The final containment of waste without additional destocking was decided by Barbara Pompili in January 2021. "Lockdown is inevitable. There is no alternative," his successor Christophe Béchu said in January at the National Assembly.

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