Question 21704 — streams, ponds and lakes

Summary

Mr. François-Michel Lambert questions the Minister of Ecological and Inclusive Transition on a draft decree aimed at the total decentralization of work authorizations on classified sites at the level of the department prefect. At first glance, this draft decree, as it is presented on the government website for public decisions, seems to go in the right direction: “As part of its policy of simplification of administrative procedures and reduction in decision-making times, and in order to strengthen decision-making as close as possible to the territories and stakeholders, the government has decided to continue, by generalizing it, the decentralization of authorizations for work carried out on classified sites. It is nevertheless clear that deconcentration is not, when it comes to "preserving the heritage value of remarkable natural sites and monuments and of their landscape and environmental quality”, the most appropriate response. By entrusting authorizations to departmental prefects, this will inevitably lead to differentiated treatment of the management of classified sites on the national territory, due to: the place and role of prefects, their potential lack of knowledge of the field due to the duration of their mandate of between 3 to 5 years on average, their different sensitivities to environmental issues and the various local, political and economic pressures to which the prefect is more subject than the minister and his services. Furthermore, the solemn nature of the ministerial decision appears more appropriate at a time when environmental sites are being preserved. Therefore, is the supposed administrative burden for environmental protection not a necessary evil, particularly in view of disastrous consequences of the decree of May 4, 2017, now entrusting prefects with the protection of watercourses? In this case, it is not a question of making assumptions as with the draft decree but of noting the consequences of deconcentration, issued by the General Council for the Environment and Sustainable Development (CGEDD), under the supervision of the Ministry of Energy Transition (July 1, 2017): "the reports force have led to a reduction, sometimes significant compared to the national benchmark, of the hydrographic network protected by untreated zones while the protection of this entire network is necessary to achieve the quality objectives of surface waters and reduce the costs of drinking water. Thus between 20% to 30% of watercourses have “disappeared” administratively, that is to say they are no longer protected (with edifying disparities depending on the departments). Consequently, he asks for details on the Government's intentions to guarantee sustainable management of classified sites throughout the territory.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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