Haut-Rhin: Court authorizes the permanent confinement of 42,000 tons of toxic waste at Stocamine

The Strasbourg Administrative Court authorized the permanent confinement of toxic waste at the Stocamine site (Haut-Rhin) on Tuesday, June 17, rejecting the requests of the European Community of Alsace, environmental protection associations, and local residents, who had warned of the impact on the environment.

The court ruled that the removal of 42,000 tonnes of toxic waste (cyanide, arsenic, mercury, etc.) stored in this former potash mine in Wittelsheim, Alsace, the option defended by the applicants, was no longer feasible in complete safety, particularly due to the deteriorating state of the infrastructure.

Permanent containment "now constitutes, given the best available techniques, the measure most likely to preserve water resources and therefore the right of future generations to meet their own needs," the administrative court explained in its judgment. This solution consists of building concrete barriers around the blocks containing the waste and backfilling the wells providing access to them in order to ensure watertightness.

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This judgment can be appealed to the Nancy Administrative Court of Appeal within two months. It marks a new stage in the years-long standoff between environmental activists and the government.

Although the authorization to store this toxic waste was initially temporary, the State, by an order of the Haut-Rhin prefecture dated September 28, 2023, extended the storage authorization for an unlimited period. The company Mines de Potasse d'Alsace (MDPA), the site manager and 100% state-owned, has since begun a major project to pour concrete barriers in the underground galleries.

The government's decision and the subsequent work have sparked some opposition in Alsace. Elected officials, local residents, and associations fear that keeping the waste underground, even under the concrete, will ultimately pollute Alsace's water table , which supplies millions of people. They believe that the condition of the mine, which they believe is too degraded to prevent water infiltration, will end up contaminating the water table when it comes into contact with the waste, despite the presence of concrete barriers.

However, the administrative court ruled that the robotic technologies envisaged by the applicants could not be used for complex destocking operations. Ruling out the possibility of destocking, the court considered that the permanent containment of toxic waste was the most likely measure to protect the environment in the short, medium, and long terms.

At the hearing on May 15, public prosecutor Alexandre Therre ruled in favor of continuing the containment work, considering that the "very significant deterioration" of the galleries, where "the roofs are sagging and the walls are moving closer together," prevented the waste from being "safely" extracted. This reasoning was criticized by François Zind, the lawyer for Alsace Nature, who believes he is being presented with a "fait accompli" and fears seeing the toxic waste passed on "as a legacy to future generations . "

In a rare cross-party statement published at the end of May, nine Alsatian parliamentarians from all sides reported a "now certain risk of rapid flooding of the mine, which will cause irreversible pollution of the water table." They called for a halt to containment work and the start of waste removal, but no follow-up was given to this initiative.

In a report published in December 2024, the Court of Auditors calculated that successive delays in the final confinement project had cost the State an additional 226 million euros since 2013.