• An industrial accident caused significant pollution of the Scheldt in April 202 near Cambrai.

  • The Tereos sugar refinery was recognized as responsible by the special steering committee on the basis of the work of a group of experts.

  • The industrialist will have to comply with ecological repair measures for the river and the affected natural environments.

For the first time in Hauts-de-France, the environmental responsibility of an industrialist was recognized after he was the source of pollution.

It is the Tereos sugar refinery, near Cambrai, in the North, which will bear the brunt, more than a year after an accident that caused the death of thousands of fish in the Scheldt.

During the night of April 9 to 10, 2020, the dike of a settling basin at the Tereos d'Escaudeuvres sugar refinery gave way.

At the time, the authorities had put forward the figure of 100,000 m3 of polluted water discharged into the watercourse adjacent to the plant.

The pollution then spread to the Scheldt and continued on its way beyond the Belgian border, killing thousands of fish in its path and degrading the natural environment.

"Environmental responsibility procedure"

It was the discovery of all these dead fish that aroused suspicion of pollution and an investigation was carried out by inspectors from the French Biodiversity Office (OFB).

They quickly identified the probable cause: the Tereos company.

Faced with what environmentalists had qualified as "the biggest ecological incident for 20 years", a steering committee had been set up and a group of experts had been set up to ascertain the extent of the damage and determine the responsibilities.

At the end of June, the work of the experts made it possible to complete, for the first time in Hauts-de-France, the "environmental liability procedure following an industrial accident which caused a degradation of natural spaces", explains the northern prefecture.

Tereos' responsibility established, a prefectural decree was issued at the end of August to list the repairs expected from the manufacturer.

Among other things, the company will have to restore 10 hectares of land on the banks of the Scheldt to "recreate areas favorable to fish reproduction".

Tereos will also have to carry out new studies to identify other degraded sites and restore them.

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