Question 469 — sea and coastline

Summary

Mr. Benoît Biteau alerts the Minister Delegate to the Minister for Partnership with Territories and Decentralization, responsible for the sea and fishing, about the marine pollution of the site “la buée des obus” located between the commune of Fouras and the island of Aix in Charente-Maritime. This pollution, brought to his attention by the Mayor of Fouras, was made public by a journalistic investigation which highlights contamination of the marine waters by underwater storage of munitions from the First World War. Very high levels of DANT, a potentially carcinogenic molecule resulting from the degradation of TNT, as well as the abnormally high presence of cobalt, nickel, arsenic and lead, were detected. The two world wars left behind hundreds of tons of chemical and conventional munitions (bombs, grenades, torpedoes) unused. This massive pollution raises several legitimate questions. First of all a question of public health, concerning the health and safety of citizens and tourists since the regular monitoring of bathing waters does not at any time look for the presence of molecules degrading munitions highlighted by journalists. It also poses an economic question since the preservation of marine environments is a major challenge for the survival of fishermen and shellfish farmers who work in the Fouras area but more widely across the entire Atlantic coast. Indeed, the dissemination of these toxic components in the underwater environment sometimes creates a chemical reaction which leads to hypoxia, an insufficient level of oxygen in the water, suffocating living organisms and endangering shellfish farming activities. Mr. Deputy asks the Minister to obtain information concerning marine munitions dumps along the French coast and their dangerousness, specialized analyzes of bathing waters as well as annual monitoring in order to know exactly whether the degradation molecules found pose an environmental health problem. Finally, he asks to obtain information concerning possible decontamination solutions in the municipality. de Fouras and all the municipalities on the Atlantic coast concerned as well as the public financing mechanisms to be implemented to start the decontamination work.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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