Sainte-Cécile. The public inquiry issues a favorable opinion on the extension of the quarry, despite strong opposition.

At the beginning of August, a few weeks after the end of the public inquiry into the environmental permit for the renewal and extension of the Sainte-Cécile quarry , the commission delivered its verdict. The three members of the commission issued a "favorable" opinion. This is good news for the TRMC company, a subsidiary of the French giant Vinci, which operates this quarry located along the RCEA, after an initial failure in 2023. And inevitably bad news for opponents, notably the members of the association Les amis de Sainte-Cécile, who demonstrated at the end of June in Mazille .

This public inquiry took place from June 2nd to July 3rd. A total of 517 people participated in this work, expressing 1,664 observations, "generally quite unfavorable," the report reads. Impact on the landscape, public health and sanitation, nature protection... Many messages were sent to oppose the project to renew and extend (Editor's note: an additional 8.3 hectares) the Sainte-Cécile quarry, which will require the clearing of nearly 6 hectares of woodland.

The commission of inquiry found that the Sainte-Cécile deposit, which produces ballast for railway lines (Editor's note: 38% of production, the rest being used for road and building construction and for concrete), was of "general interest" in the context of the development of electric transport such as trains to combat global warming. "This gives the quarry a major public interest, justifying the exemption for protected species," the commission stated in its conclusions.

Regarding the landscape impact, one of the opponents' main arguments, the commission believes that "relatively few residents have more than a fleeting view of the quarry," except for "some of the residents on the southern slope of Mazille." "Cancelling the operating permit would create more difficulties without providing any real solutions," the investigating commissioners believe. "The quarry would not disappear from the landscape, and since the department already has a shortage of aggregates, importing them from other regions would mean an increase of more than 400% in greenhouse gas emissions and increased road traffic."

The commission of inquiry nevertheless recommends the development of "a landscape management plan, which should make it possible to define a 25-year action program." Another recommendation, "in the face of a risk of water runoff overflowing into the Grosne during torrential rains," is "the installation of a lifting pump between the storm basin and the central water storage basin." This should not pose any major problems for the company.