Home » News » Toxic landfill in Villejuif: communities take the state to court

Toxic landfill in Villejuif: communities take the state to court

In the spring of 2020, a slum had formed at the foot of Fort Villejuif, following the evacuation of camps in Seine-et-Marne, Bonneuil-sur-Marne and the Parc des Lilas de Vitry-sur-Seine. However, its inhabitants quickly found themselves under the control of an organization which transformed the site into an illegal dump, recovering waste from all over the region, for certain pollutants and dangerous, and forcing the inhabitants of the camp, including children, to do sorting. In June 2021, the police evacuated the site which had been set up on state land after a court decision and after numerous arrests by elected officials towards the state. Since that date, however, the open dump, which the city of Villejuif estimates at 40,000 m3, is still present. A volume that is starting to be substantial, even if we stay far from the mountain of waste (consequence of a landfill whose manager had gone bankrupt) which had delayed the creation of the Durable Times eco-district in Limeil-Brévannes. a few years ago. A smoking slag heap that had exceeded 150,000 m3 and 25 meters in height. At the time, the evacuation and depollution had cost 20 million euros.

And en justice

“These deposits of potentially dangerous substances and materials seriously harm the air and soil pollution of this space, which is nevertheless classified as a sensitive natural area. It is urgent, as the construction of the Gustave-Roussy station of the Grand Paris express (line 14) is entering its last phase and the first developments of the ZAC Campus Grand Parc are underway”, press the city which announces to attack the State in justice “to obtain the restoration of the site”, “in conjunction with the Departmental Council and the neighboring towns of Cachan, L’Haÿ-les-Roses and Arcueil”. At the helm, it is Corinne Lepage, lawyer and environmental activist, who will plead the case.

What future for the site?

Beyond depollution, which today constitutes a prerequisite, the future of the site of the fort also arouses controversy. This former national police training center (until summer 2016) was initially to be converted into a mixed project with a branch of the Paris Saclay medical school, a residence for students and young workers, a hostel youth centre, a seminar centre… A project which was one of the first winners of the Inventons la Métropole competition. A projection that has become obsolete because the antenna of the college was finally transferred to Bicêtre. Instead, a transfer of services from the Ministry of the Interior has been envisaged, which has put the city up against the wind while the large zac Campus Grand Parc project, developed by Sadev94, in which the site is part, is entirely turned with science, between the extension of the Gustave Roussy Institute, already ranked among the leading anti-cancer centers in Europe, and the development of real estate largely dedicated to scientific activities.

Read about it: Science and health center in Villejuif: update on the zac Campus Grand Parc
And: Villejuif: new investors for the zac Campus grand parc

In February 2021, the President of the Republic, visiting Villejuif, nevertheless ruled out this hypothesis, promising, according to the comments reported by Mayor Pierre Garzon, to facilitate the field session to continue the Campus Grand Parc project. But a few weeks later, in March 2021, Minister Marlène Schiappa once again cast doubt during a government response session, telling MP Albane Gaillot that the site was intended “to host, in the short term, a waste recovery company and then, in the medium term, support structures for the Ministry of the Interior.”

Read: Villejuif: uncertainties about the future of the wild dump in Villejuif

Since the evacuation of the slum in June 2021, however, nothing has happened.

The elected officials will kick off this new mobilization in justice this Wednesday, May 18 on the occasion of the launch of the nature festival in Villejuif.

As a reminder of previous episodes, read:

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