EIF squat in Montreuil: the city files a complaint

Since September, the “Garde la Pêche Montreuil” association has invested in the buildings of a former skin factory, EIF, intended to be converted after decontamination. While an eviction procedure was initiated by the owner, the Epfif (Public Land Establishment of Île-de-France) which carries the land to reconvert it, the town hall has just lodged a complaint for endangering the land. life of others and seized the public prosecutor.

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What will happen to the EIF factory in the Murs à Pêches district? The debate has been raging for several years. In 2017, the Métropole du Grand Paris chose UrbanEra, a subsidiary of Bouygues Immobilier, to convert this industrial site into a complex combining housing and businesses. But the strong presence of chlorinated solvents with carcinogenic effects got the better of the project last June. The site is then taken over by Epfif, which undertakes to carry out decontamination operations before reselling the land.

These start in the fall of 2020, recalls the town hall. But since this summer, many residents of the neighborhood have been showing their dissatisfaction. The Restes Ensemble association, founded in June 2020, notably denounces a measurement of the level of pollution with a single reading point, located within the factory. Its members demand that the analyzes extend to surrounding homes. A request to which the town hall ceded in July, by entering the Central Laboratory of the Prefecture of Police (LCPP) and the Regional Health Agency (ARS). The analyzes in question still have to be done to this day. The association also claims to have obtained a commitment from the town hall not to start the decontamination work before having carried out the survey of the pollution level. A commitment now questioned by Bijan Anquetil, member of Restes Ensemble: “The town hall says that the cleanup should have started in the fall. However, the LCPP has still not carried out the analyzes that we asked it to do. ”

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Since September 15, the EIF site has been occupied by activists from the “Garde la Pêche Montreuil!” Collective. First come to find accommodation, the newcomers support Restes Ensemble’s approach, also denouncing the lack of consultation in the clean-up operation. Lulu, 56, says residents only live in unpolluted parts of the factory. Worried about the potential takeover of the place by a developer, they say they want to transform the place into a “Place of conviviality” centered around the “Transmission of knowledge and collective creation”, animated by artists and craftsmen (photographers, carpenters, welders…). The launch of a popular canteen was notably planned for soon.

Believing that the occupation prevents the start of decontamination work, the town hall of Montreuil announced to file a complaint for “Endangering the life of others” on January 29. For Gaylord Le Chéquer, first deputy mayor PCF Patrice Bessac, “Chlorinated solvents (benzene and trichlorethylene in particular) and hydrocarbons therefore continue to propagate in the soil […] even as the City is taking actions to preserve the health of local residents and strengthen the site’s biodiversity and natural potential ”, alert the chosen one.

“The attitude of the occupants without rights or titles, who have twice refused our Communal Hygiene and Health Service to enter the factory in order to do their work is simply unacceptable”, abounds Loline Bertin, assistant for public tranquility. For the association, the argument of danger is only a pretext for their expulsion. “The premises were already occupied by companies before our arrival. EPFIF wants to dislodge us so that we can concrete as quickly as possible ”, Lulu says. In a press release, the association believes that “The ecology that the current town hall claims to be clearly playing into the hands of the gentrification of the neighborhood.”

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