It is a decision strongly contested by many environmental associations, elected officials, communities, citizens, who denounce the risks of pollution of the groundwater table in Alsace, the largest in Europe.

But the work for the final containment of the 42,000 tonnes of hazardous waste remaining at the bottom of the Stocamine mine in Wittelsheim in the Haut-Rhin, should however be able to begin by the end of this month of May.

Announced by Barbara Pompili, Minister for the Ecological Transition last January, the government indeed wishes to “start as soon as possible” the work of containment of the waste “in order to ensure the safety of the workers and to protect the Alsace water table in the long term”.

Work that should extend over four years.

And this first requires preparatory work for mining maintenance and security, which must not, however, “affect the reversibility of the disposal” while awaiting final authorisation.

A decree of January 28, 2022 which had indeed given formal notice to the company MDPA, in charge of the Stocamine site, to file within four months a file meeting the requirements of the Environmental Code for the authorization of unlimited storage.

"The aging and deformation of the galleries will no longer make it possible to ensure the security of the mining site, nor to guarantee the possibility of carrying out work there under conditions acceptable to the stakeholders beyond 2027", warned the minister.

Thus, until the summer of 2023, six dams, out of the twelve planned in the event of final confinement, will be completed with the injection of several types of concrete.

Empty blocks will be backfilled and a drainage area created.

“Each dam is made up of several concrete and salt segments, filling the entire width of the gallery to be closed (…), and totaling a length of just over fifty meters,” MDPA told

AFP

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A total destocking impossible?

A confinement "forever" wanted by the government while the hope of the opponents is to evacuate as much as possible of the waste present - mercury, chromium, incineration residues, etc. - before the galleries close.

Towards a final containment while the demands on the very nature of the stored waste still questions the opponents who suspect "a desire to conceal" and that several appeals are still being examined by the administrative justice...

As a reminder, nearly 95% of the most dangerous waste containing mercury has already been extracted from the storage site between 2014 and 2017. In 2018, the Ministry of Ecology also asked the Geological and Mining Research Office for a new feasibility study for the total destocking this time of Stocamine, excluding block number 15, victim in 2002 of a fire which had led to the total closure of the site only three years after its opening.

A complete destocking deemed unfeasible at the time, in particular for operator safety reasons… and a cost estimated by MDPH at 472 million euros and 15 years of work.

A confinement which is even also the subject of attempted negotiations.

Like the European Community of Alsace (CEA), which still proposed a compromise to the government a few weeks ago, navigating between a permanent closure of the dangerous galleries, deemed inevitable, as for gallery 15, in exchange for the extraction of a large part of the disposal in the galleries "in good condition", even if it means using new technologies such as robotics.

And why not develop a new reference industrial sector, which could advise other territories in the future.

In the meantime, work begins on Tuesday.

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