Environment underwater pollution defense
Move along, nothing to see here
LE MONDE, Thursday, August 19, 1999
Outrage in the Toulon harbor over a secret defense pipeline
"The French Navy will begin operating a 400-meter-long outfall pipe off the Saint-Mandrier peninsula starting in September. It was through a conversation with a friend that Gilles Vincent, mayor of the small Var village of Saint-Mandrier located west of Toulon, learned of this project. He also discovered that this pipeline, built in complete secrecy, will be used to discharge cooling water from the nuclear propulsion engines of the six attack submarines based in Toulon, as well as from the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, which will join them in a few months. The mayor expressed surprise to the Ministry of Defense, stating, 'The commune was not informed, no public inquiry was held to allow residents to react, and standard administrative procedures were not followed.' Referring to the project’s classification under a 'confidential defense' decree signed by the Prime Minister on November 26, 1997, Mr. Vincent questioned: 'If these discharges are not dangerous, why take such measures that only serve to raise public concern? For many years, our commune and its coastline have suffered serious environmental damage.
Even today, residents of Saint-Mandrier continue to endure significant nuisances. These are incompatible with our municipality’s commitment to protect its living environment and with the launch of the Bay Contract, which the mayor of Saint-Mandrier chairs as head of the support committee.
This development project aims to restore balance to bathing waters, flora, and fauna, in line with economic and tourist development across a 2,100-hectare harbor area serving 340,000 people and 11 communes, including Saint-Mandrier. Although the Navy was long considered the main polluter of this harbor, it has now become an active partner in drafting this Bay Contract—though, it appears, without fully transparent environmental practices. The Ministry of Defense responded to the mayor by stating, 'I believe your concerns stem more from a lack of information'—without providing any more substantial details. On June 25, Mr. Vincent had met with Admiral Baudonnière, who oversees the file. However, he was unable to obtain information about the environmental impact study regarding the nature and danger of the 'radioactive effluents,' as the Admiral later described them in a letter. Since the beginning of this affair, the Navy has consistently invoked 'defense secrecy.' For the Movement for Action in the Toulon Harbor, which brings together 99 associations, this stance is 'a blatant contradiction with the Barcelona Convention signed by France in 1976, which regulates all discharges into the Mediterranean.'
The Navy also refuses to disclose details about the cooling water’s composition. It is impossible to determine whether the water comes from the primary circuit (around the fuel rods) or the secondary cooling circuit—the former being more radioactive. The actual toxicity of these effluents, which also contain chemical pollutants, remains unknown. The same secrecy surrounds the decontamination process prior to discharge into the sea, despite the fact that the French Navy lacks treatment facilities, unlike the Cadarache nuclear center, where these 'contaminated effluents' are currently processed, according to a specialist in purification operations.
Mr. Vincent’s concerns are shared by Odette Casanova, a Socialist deputy from the Var, who has just questioned the Ministers of Defense and Environment, warning that 'we must consider the potential long-term dangers posed by these discharges to current and future populations, given the inevitable accumulation of concentrations over time.'
José Lenzini
Number of views since April 21, 2003: