Dioxin alert shuts French waste incinerators

[Alan Watson <alanwatson@gn.apc.org>]

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Dioxin alert shuts French waste incinerators 
ENDS Daily - 29/01/98 
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Three French municipal waste incinerators have been ordered 
to close after elevated levels of dioxins were discovered 
in milk from cows grazing near one of the plants.  French 
environment minister Dominique Voynet has supported the 
move and demanded immediate action to ensure that other 
incinerators in France comply with legal standards. 
 
The three incinerators affected are in the area of Lille, 
close to France's northern border with Belgium.  On 21 
January, the Nord Pas de Calais prefecture (regional 
authority) learned of tests showing that milk from cows 
grazing from 250 metres to 1km from the Halluin municipal 
waste incinerator had up to three times the admissible 
levels of dioxins.  On Tuesday, the Communauté urbaine de 
Lille, which covers Lille and its immediate region, ordered 
the closure of Halluin, along with two neighbouring 
incinerators at Wasquchal and Sequedin. 
 
Dominique Voynet yesterday strongly supported the decision.  
The prefecture has been asked not to allow the incinerators 
to re-start until they have been fully inspected and steps 
taken to ensure their compliance with a 1991 decree on 
municipal waste incinerators, she said. 
 
Ms Voynet went further, reminding incinerator operators 
that the ministry had called for measures to reduce dioxin 
emissions in a circular distributed to all prefectures last 
May.  "Despite several requests from the ministry...the 
operators [of the Lille incinerators] have not taken the 
steps on dioxin emissions that were demanded in prefectoral 
decrees," she said. 
 
Ms Voynet revealed that she has asked prefectures around 
the country to take further steps to ensure compliance with 
the 1991 decree.  Where incinerators were not in 
compliance, she said, they should use penalties at their 
disposal "as much as necessary". 
 
Environmental groups have welcomed the minister's action.  
Greenpeace, which has long campaigned on the issue of 
dioxin emissions from incinerators reaffirmed its demand 
for a five-year moratorium in the building of new municipal 
waste incinerators. 
 
Contacts:  Communauté urbaine de Lille, tel: +33 3 20 21 22 
23;  French environment ministry 
(http://www.environnement.gouv.fr), tel: +33 1 42 19 20 21. 
 
 

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