Following the revelations of Europe 1, the Minister of Energy Transition Barbara Pompili indicated on Wednesday that all the sites in Ile-de-France of the cement company Lafarge located on the banks of the Seine would be checked.
An investigation has been opened for suspicion of pollution of the river, while two sites have already been singled out.
The Minister of Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili announced on Wednesday that all the sites of the Lafarge cement company located on the banks of the Seine in Ile-de-France will be checked, while an investigation has been opened for suspicion of pollution of the river.
"These acts are intolerable. I am awaiting explanations from the Lafarge group and I have already decided to launch an operation to control all of its facilities which border the Seine in Ile-de-France", the minister said in a tweet.
A little less than ten sites concerned
These acts are intolerable.
I am awaiting explanations from the #Lafarge Group and I have already decided to launch an operation to check all of its installations along the Seine in Ile-de-France.
https://t.co/IAmtgzny7B
- Barbara Pompili (@barbarapompili) September 2, 2020
A little less than ten sites is concerned, said the ministry.
Europe 1 revealed Tuesday that a Lafarge factory located in the Bercy district, in the east of the capital, discharges into the river a mixture of "particles of cement, treatment liquids and plastic microfibers".
An investigation is open
Contacted, the Paris prosecutor's office announced that an investigation had been opened since the French Biodiversity Office (OFB) noted on August 27 a "suspicion of pollution of the Seine by a public works company".
In a press release, Lafarge said it was "victim" and says that the flow in question is the result of "an exceptional accident caused by a malicious act", and is in no way a voluntary act of the company.
Still according to Europe 1, a second site located in Paris would be concerned and "concrete could have been dumped for several years at the foot of the Mirabeau bridge," said the radio on Wednesday, citing an association of residents.