Reports the daily L'Alsace that thirty activists representing the environmental group Extinction Rebellion obstructed the Stocamine hazardous waste disposal site in Wittelsheim, Haut-Rhin on Saturday morning. They then left the scene peacefully.
The activists denounced that the state "puts problems under the rug" and put waste under the tablecloth. Some of them chained themselves to the gate. According to photos posted on Twitter by the organization, which is used to performing spectacular acts, others laid down on the ground and attached themselves to a bag with cement to prevent an evacuation. They then installed a wooden tower to stop the possibility of it being evacuated. Attention must be paid to the urgent climate crisis.
Some had entered the Stocamine Enclosure and tagged buildings and equipment at the beginning of the morning. Celine Schumpp (amiable liquidator of Stocamine operator Mines de potasse d'Alsace, MDPA), expressed her "total incomprehension" about this action, while work is still being done on the site. On Saturday morning, there was no activity on the site.
The militants were accompanied by the gendarmes who had been deployed on the spot to secure it. They lifted their blockade at 10:30 a.m., according to an AFP correspondent.
"Unfortunately, there have been many studies and case laws that have been made on the subject. But that has not changed the fact that the waste is still being buried. (...) Is justice still a factor in this country's affairs? "declared to L'Alsace an active nicknamed "Pousse."
Stocamine, a former potash mine that was converted at the beginning of 2000s to a storage facility for radioactive hazardous industrial waste, is Stocamine.
It was shut down in 2002 after it was set on fire. The fate of 42,000 tonnes of waste buried underground at 550m has been a matter of dispute and legal battles. The State wants to close the site and put concrete plugs in place before it is closed. Local authorities are threatening to collapse, while environmentalists and local authorities want as much waste removed as possible as a precaution for the Alsace groundwater table.
The administrative court in Strasbourg decided Wednesday to temporarily suspend work that had been started to prepare for closure. This was a setback for the State's desire to confine the waste.
