Giant graffiti blocks the disused facade. Beer bottles, broken records and cans of super cleaner litter the floor. In the heart of Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis), a stone’s throw from Paris, the former Citroën car dealership is part of the landscape, established in the middle of businesses and homes since 1957. Bodywork was repaired here and cars were sold new or used until 2016. “Everyone knows this place,” says Jean-Paul, 63, a neighbor for almost twenty years. It’s a garage so we know there is pollution. But are there too many? »
“Too much” is what documents to which we have had access indicate. This dealership of the Stellantis group (formerly PSA Peugeot Citroën) like others across France, presents alarming rates of pollution in its soil, and sometimes in the water. Toulouse, Saint-Herblain, Montreuil, Vénissieux… hundreds of pages of environmental diagnosis reveal the presence of hydrocarbons, mercury, phthalates, chlorinated solvents, BTEX, and other “COHV”, volatile and toxic compounds. Products dangerous for nature, as well as for humans. With a risk all the greater as these gigantic stores, sometimes in the city center, welcomed customers and employees.
Decontamination obligation
Why talk about it in the past tense? Because Stellantis has returned the keys sometimes several years ago. The garage activity therefore no longer exists. But pollution persists. When leaving the premises, the Franco-Italian-American industrial giant had the duty to make them clean, which it did not do completely, despite the start of work.
This is demonstrated by the report of an environmental consulting firm. The company was mandated by the owner, a Parisian real estate company, which, according to our information, has taken legal action against the famous builder. However, this counter-expertise reports pollution not recorded in the investigations commissioned by Stellantis.
Here we read that “the notable presence of VOCs has been identified in soil gases in the paint booth sector”. Further on, “anomalies of exceeding very high mercury reference values” are reported. There, the “identification of a phthalate source area” challenges the experts. In Montreuil, it is hydrocarbons, a possible legacy of gasoline stocks, which are in the viewfinder, measured “within the soil of the site”.
Invisible threats, buried in the earth, but which sometimes come to light. “A few years ago, the drain oil tank started leaking, it was seeping down our wall. The traces are still visible,” denounces Fabien, whose house is next to the Ile-de-France garage. Sometimes you also had to reckon with the smell.
“In my cellar, there were good smells of diesel. It had to go through the sewer system since we share the same pipes,” says the sixty-year-old. When he complained to his imposing neighbor… “Ah, well, they told me it wasn’t them!” » he quips. Behind the apparent lightness, there is concern, because the products mentioned, some of which are now banned, are far from trivial.
“We cannot control these molecules”
From his laboratory at the University of Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin), Stéphane Vuilleumier confirms. The microbiologist is not surprised by the presence of chlorinated solvents, “historic pollutants” of the automobile industry in the 1970s. “They were the miracle molecules for degreasing the metal part of auto parts,” he explains. The problem is that they are very poorly degradable and volatile. We do not control the emissions: they can go into the water and the air. In this case, the contaminated sites remain contaminated for decades. »
VIDEO. Île-de-France: drinking water contaminated by dioxane, a potentially carcinogenic solvent
We present to this specialist the rates in our possession. In Saint-Herblain, on the outskirts of Nantes (Loire-Atlantique), the 22,000 m2 vehicle sales, rental and maintenance site, operated from 1985 to the end of 2022 by PSA, shows dichloroethylene contents of up to at 18,840 µg/m3 and tetrachlorethylene up to 10,233 µg/m3. Two members of the COHV family, the second of which is classified as a “probable carcinogen”. “It’s really a lot! he reacts. »
Concerning the Vénissieux installation, near Lyon (Rhône), the professor of environmental biology ticks off “the co-pollution of chlorinated solvents and mercury, which seems quite enormous”. In this former Citroën dealership, mercury levels, popular in the 1990s for the manufacture of equipment, go up to 2.5 mg/kg, a concentration considered “abnormal”. Worse, hydrocarbons are detected “supernatant” in the water table, therefore impacting groundwater.
Corporate culture or “deliberate strategy”?
“The automobile industry is not an industry for altar boys. It’s obvious that if you dig in the ground, you won’t find anything tasty! immediately asks a high-ranking Stellantis source, who only agrees to speak on condition of anonymity. The only real question is: Why did the company not carry out the cleanup for which it was contractually obligated? Why has no action been launched when we are talking about public health? »
Company which declared a profit of 16.8 billion euros last year and boasts its eco-friendly nature. On the Vénissieux site for example, “cleaning” operations are estimated at between 300,000 and 700,000 euros.
So, yes, why leave such dust under the carpet? According to him, this should not be seen as a “deliberate strategy” but rather the consequences of a corporate culture: “When you constantly tell your teams to make financial efforts, they make cuts where they need to. can, too bad if it affects the environment. » In an email he sent to us, the industrialist defends himself from any breach and assures that “the environmental and health compliance of the sites mentioned cannot be called into question”.
In France, beyond the Stellantis “case”, the decontamination objectives depend on what we intend to do with the future site: factory, housing, daycare, etc. But, this “does not exempt us from seeking possibilities for eliminating concentrated pollution . This involves implementing proactive treatment of sources of pollution with a view to improving the quality of environments,” points out Clément Zornig, head of the Polluted Soil and Sediment Sites unit at BRGM, the public establishment of reference.
Finding solutions requires the will to do so. Beyond automobiles, our soils are full of toxic agents, inherited from old factories, dry cleaners, mines, etc. Officially, some 10,000 sites are listed in France. “But there are many more, including all those where the polluter left without leaving an address. The problem has been known for forty years, and not much has been done for forty years…” says Stéphane Vuilleumier, annoyed. “Clean up industrial sites? Well, good luck! tackle, a bit cynical, our source at Stellantis. It’s like wanting to clean up the Seine…” That’s the objective for the 2024 Olympic Games. So, what about?
The brand evokes pollution prior to its presence
When requested, Stellantis assures us that it has respected its obligations “with the greatest seriousness”. Concerning the concessions in question, the group claims to have “used design offices and decontamination companies, certified in the field of polluted sites and soils”. It was on the basis of these documents that he “had the pollution relating to his activity treated”, he wrote. He therefore considers that “the environmental and health compliance of the sites mentioned with regard to the regulations cannot be called into question. » The reports we consulted, however, seem to show that this work was incomplete.
In Saint-Herblain, Toulouse, Montreuil or Vénissieux, the industrialist blames pollution prior to its presence, linked to the quality of the soil or embankments which may contain heavy metals, including mercury. “This historical or regional situation cannot in any way be attributed to Stellantis,” he pleads. A fact which is indeed mentioned in the counter-expertise but which does not explain all the contaminations noted.
#Stellantis #automobile #group #hidden #pollution #dealerships
