This water reservoir is at the heart of a conflict between defenders of rurality, protectors of the environment and the State.

Two leaders of the Lot-et-Garonne chamber of agriculture escaped Thursday appealing to prison for having illegally dug the "lake of Caussade".

Serge Bousquet-Cassagne and Patrick Franken, president and vice-president of the department's chamber of agriculture, were sentenced by the Agen Court of Appeal to 10 months in prison with a probationary suspension of 18 months, while that the first instance judgment had pronounced in July 2020 sentences of nine and eight months firm.

40,000 euros fine for the chamber of agriculture

The Court of Appeal did not retain this time the endangerment of the life of others for the construction of this dam without respecting the standards, and did not revoke the reprieve of previous convictions either.

The two defendants will still have to pay a fine of 7,000 euros each plus 1,000 euros for the civil parties for the reimbursement of legal costs.

They will also have to pay 32,900 euros to Enedis, whose facilities had been damaged.

The chamber of agriculture will have to pay a fine of 40,000 euros, half of which is suspended, as in the first instance.

A water reservoir built to irrigate farms in the dry season

"We knew full well that the justice of our country was not going to put us in prison for having made a lake", welcomed at the exit of the hearing Serge Bousquet-Cassagne, who saw in this judgment a "snub for environmental associations.

“Quite the contrary”, replied Lionel Feuillas for France Nature Environnement, civil party.

"This is the first time that two leaders of a chamber of agriculture and the chamber of agriculture itself have been convicted of criminal charges for environmental offenses."

This water reservoir north of Villeneuve-sur-Lot was dug in 2019 by the chamber of agriculture, managed by the Rural Coordination (CR 47), for a few dozen farmers wishing to irrigate their farms in the dry season. .

The illegality of the work confirmed by justice

Contested by environmental associations but supported by elected officials from the right and left, this artificial lake has given rise to a legal saga coupled with a dialogue of the deaf since the cancellation at the end of 2018 - after intervention by the Ministries of Ecological Transition and 'Agriculture - of a prefectural decree initially authorizing the work.

On the administrative level, the courts confirmed in February 2021 on appeal the illegality of the work, without ordering the restoration of the site, which has been in operation for several years and which FNE intends to eliminate.

Planet

Lac de Caussade: Two agricultural leaders on appeal in Agen for illegal water retention

Planet

Lac de Caussade: Justice confirms the illegality of the water reservoir located in Lot-et-Garonne

  • Aquitaine

  • Justice

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  • Agen

  • Environment

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