Crassier de Florange: ArcelorMittal escapes trial

At the end of June 2017, the case had caused a stir. The Republican Lorrain reported that ArcelorMittal subcontractors had dumped tens of cubic meters of acid and untreated waste into the “slag” of the plant at the Florange site. However, the slag is an installation classified for the protection of the environment (ICPE) intended for lagooning and open-air storage of certain non-hazardous residues from the site. Since 1914, steelworks waste has been dumped on this 160 hectare site.

Seized, the Thionville prosecutor’s office had opened a criminal investigation. For its part, ArcelorMittal assured ” n'[être] in no case at the origin of alleged irregular spills on the storage area “. In September 2018, the prosecution delivered its conclusions. He considered that the company had not discharged “dangerous” products but process water from a pickling and acid regeneration line. These waters contained hydrochloric acid and a significant concentration of iron hydroxide sludge. However, it was not hazardous waste under environmental law.

However, ArcelorMittal Atlantique and Lorraine, the offending subsidiary of ArcelorMittal, did not have the right to discharge these effluents into its slag dump. She was therefore prosecuted for irregular waste management and for operating a waste storage facility without authorization. She faced a fine of up to 75,000 euros.

In addition, the procedure showed that during an inspection of the site in May 2015, two years before the affair reported by the press, the site had already been found to be in default. The Dreal had observed the presence of eight types of sludge classified as “hazardous waste”, as well as a mass and volume overrun of the quantity authorized by the prefectural decree. As of December 2015, the company was still not in compliance, but “Had initiated improvement actions” in order to stop the storage of hazardous waste and reduce the volumes discharged, reports the Metz Court of Appeal. Furthermore, “For several years, there had been a problem with aqueous discharges from the slag site”. In 2016, a sample in a nearby field revealed the flow of water laden with arsenic, iron and cyanide.

French case law contrary to European law

In 2019, the company benefits from an acquittal at first instance. “The court considered that there were not enough elements to constitute the offense”, reports Anaïs Cordier, legal officer at Lorraine Nature Environnement (who also represented the associations France Nature Environnement and Air Vigilence, civil parties in the case). However, the prosecution and associations, believing, on the contrary, that there were enough elements, appealed.

But ultimately there will be no sanction. Indeed, the Metz Court of Appeal has just ruled that the public action was extinguished. In question ? The “disappearance” of ArcelorMittal Atlantique and Lorraine. More specifically, ArcelorMittal France absorbed its subsidiary in July 2019. “Even if this is not the main objective of the merger-absorption, the company was able to benefit from a legal loophole which allowed it to escape prosecution”, summarizes Anaïs Cordier.

Normally, explains the latter, European law, and in particular the directives of 1978 and 2017 relating to company law, provide that criminal liability is transferred to the new company in the event of a merger. But “The case law of the Court of Cassation did not follow European law until November 2020”.

The offense having taken place before the reversal of jurisprudence, the public prosecutor explained before the court of appeal that “The absorption of the company leads to the extinction of public action” and therefore did not pursue his indictment on the merits of the case. The Court of Appeal held in particular that “The merger-absorption operation is part of an industrial policy decided at a European level (??) and cannot be considered as having been carried out with the aim of removing ArcelorMittal Atlantique and Loraine from its responsibility”

Acid would have been spilled in the “dirt” of ArcelorMittal Florange (article published on 07/04/2017) Acid was reportedly spilled on the open-air storage site of the ArcelorMittal site in Florange. The industrialist denies being at the origin of such spills. An investigation is opened by the Thionville prosecutor’s office. Read the news
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Article published on March 23, 2021

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