One year after the factory fire Lubrizol from Rouen, a collective was formed in the Haut-Rhin around industrial dangers in southern Alsace, one aspect of which we had mentioned in our series of articles relating to lindane dumps in the Mulhouse conurbation.
The “Collective September 26 South Alsace”, (in reference to the anniversary date of the explosion of Lubrizol), has chosen in particular to focus on the conditions of transit and storage of agricultural ammonitrate at the port site of Ottmarsheim.
Ammonitrate stored there is the main form ofnitrogen fertilizer used in agriculture. France produces several million tonnes of it each year and consumes around one million tonnes per year.
The nitrate d’ammonium has strong power oxidant. Ammonitrates are classified as oxidizers by the legislation relating to transport of dangerous goods. It is also a (moderate) air pollutant.
Many disasters have involved stocks of ammonitrate. This was the case with AZF in Toulouse in September 2001, causing 31 deaths and more than 2,000 injuries, or even recently in the Port of Beirutin Lebanon on August 4, killing 171 people and injuring more than 6,000.
These particular risks, known since the beginning of the 20th century, therefore imply specific regulations relating to the storage of this product.
In France, one hundred and eight sites classified as “ Seveso »Store ammonitrates, sixteen warehouses are listed “Seveso high threshold” (more than 2,500 tonnes of ammonitrates).
Very close to Mulhouse, a site is also in the hot seat, and we would like to think that it is the subject of close surveillance by the prefectural authorities, which is far from being proven.
So, it is our colleague Reporterre which confirmed in September 2018 the fears that many already had about the Ottmarsheim depot, located about twenty kilometers from Mulhouse.
An anonymous whistleblower working for the insurer Groupama then discovered in an agricultural cooperative 1,250 tons of ammonium nitrate, and ten non-conformities with safety rules. A potentially explosive cocktail described by the menu in a episode survey published by our colleague specializing in ecology.
Proof of the operator’s erratic behavior: in particular, we discovered a pallet of sugar stored above a pallet of bags of ammonium nitrate in the warehouse of the cooperative, even though the mixture of the two products allows the creation of powerful explosives. !
While ammonium nitrate is not dangerous as long as it remains pure at low temperature, it “Can decompose from 210 ° C and detonate in a confined space”, as explained Reporterre to those who doubted its real dangerousness. The concentrations can also vary slightly between producers.
In Ottmarsheim, the whistleblower noted for example the “Voluntary decommissioning of fire detection by the operator” or “The absence of two fire hoses” and the lack “Smoke evacuation. “
For the inspector of Groupama Grand Est, “Ammonitrate is a taboo subject in agriculture. “. A taboo that is beginning to date, since nitrogen fertilizers are largely the basis of the agricultural productivist model resulting from the post-war period. And more generally at the origin of agrochemistry, whose deleterious effects on health and hormonal regulation are now widely documented.
Asked by Reporterre, the Ottmarsheim grain agricultural cooperative claimed that the standards were being met. It even hosted a pool of journalists to try, in vain, to prove it.
The Regional Directorate for the Environment (DREAL), which acts as a policeman for environmental rules, we reacted slowly, certainly noting “non-conformities” but ensuring that the operator promised to put an end to them.
The height of the administration’s inertia and bad faith: while the DREAL reports must be public, the worst difficulties are faced by the journalist from Reporterre, obliged to make the trip from Paris to consult the documents incriminating the irresponsibility of the cooperative, at the head of the office of public inquiries and classified installations of the Haut-Rhin prefecture, able to affirm: “The prefect wants us to be transparent on this file”!
A respect for safety rules which was already questionable in Alsace in June 2018: a grain silo exploded there in the Rhine port in Strasbourg.
Only 4 wounded were deplored. But the results could have been more severe if the firefighters had not evacuated a stock of 447 tonnes of ammonitrates located near the site …
To this day, it is still impossible for us to obtain a precise statement of the stocks of ammonium nitrate stored in the sheds of the Ottmarsheim agricultural cooperative, which is still in operation.
The entire survey carried out by our colleague is available for consultation here.
