Surfpark in Gironde: the expert witness's report has been released, it is in favor of the Surfing Academy project

The subject has been controversial for months: can the surf park pools with artificial waves planned in Canéjan do without drinking water? The legal expert opinion, which "Sud Ouest" consulted, considers that an additional rainwater retention tank would be enough to ensure their autonomy and judges the study put forward by the opposing associations to be "extremely admissible" but "pessimistic."

There's no doubt about it, the mechanical shovel that was working midweek in a parking lot at the former Solectron factory in Canéjan is digging a swimming pool. Beyond the simple soil study, leveling, and asphalt removal work that was announced, "the report has given us a boost; we're laying out the first pool," acknowledges Nicolas Padois, one of the leaders of the Académie de la Glisse, this sensational surf park project with an artificial wave, never before seen in France, which has not escaped controversy. The appointment last fall of a legal expert aimed to clarify the water consumption of the sports facility. His report, which so warms Nicolas Padois's heart, has just been released.

Because there was a world of difference between the water self-sufficiency claimed by the Académie de la Glisse, thanks to the exclusive use of rainwater collected on the roofs of neighboring industrial buildings, and the "50,000 m³" of drinking water that would need to be put back into the pot, a high hypothesis every other year, according to the study by former INRAE ​​researcher Denis Loustau put forward by the Sepanso and Surfrider Foundation associations. The main divergence of opinion concerns the evaporation of water from the two pools, notoriously "underestimated" by the Académie de la Glisse, according to Denis Loustau.

According to Gabriel Poli, the legal expert, after examining the period 2014-2024, "three years out of eleven," water losses would have exceeded the contributions, despite the 3,750 m³ stored in buffer reservoirs included in the project. "An incomplete assessment," the expert is careful to point out, failing to take into account the loss of water through overflow, "difficult to evaluate," and the exit of soaked surfers from the pools ("150 liters of water per day" for a maximum of 300 surfers). He adds in passing that "this conclusion in no way prejudges climate change."

"We have been defamed, called liars, swindlers. The report proves our good faith."

The legal expert considers, for the benefit of the Académie de la Glisse, that it is "very imprudent to conclude that self-sufficiency is being displayed." And while he praises Denis Loustau's "extremely admissible analysis," it does not depart from "a pessimism that seems to us to be a little too pronounced regarding the choice of variables leading, during the dry summer months, to an insufficiency of available water resources without the supply of drinking water."

"In typical 2022 weather scenarios," the additional drinking water volume would be in the order of "4,000 m³," counters Gabriel Poli. There are alternatives: closing the secondary basin, already mentioned by the project leaders, or, suggests the legal expert, installing an additional tank to "increase rain storage during excess periods." Sepanso ^lawyer Marion Rebière develops her counter-arguments in a long letter attached to the expert report, noting in particular that the study by Denis Loustau, "a renowned scientist who participated in the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)," is "very close" to the water losses calculated by Wavegarden, the designer of the artificial wave technology selected in Canéjan.

"The volume of water required during a year of operation to compensate for evaporation losses will vary around 20,000 m³ per year," the Spanish company's water management manager estimated in a letter. The expert's response: "We confirm our technical position; citing a manufacturer as a guarantor of scientific results does not scientifically validate an approach."

Nicolas Padois doesn't dwell on this detail. Founder of a surf school in Arcachon, he is part of the first circle of project leaders, around the musician and composer Édouard Algayon . "We have been defamed, we have been called liars, crooks. There are elements of language that we should not have used, but the report proves our good faith, we are on the same orders of magnitude, nothing to do with the online petition which announces more than 180,000 m³ of water consumed per year ." He also assures that, on the basis of the expert report, an additional tank of 3,000 m³ will be built.

"So much the better if it gets them moving in the right direction. It's a bit as if the expert were holding the hand of the project leaders," says Philippe Barbedienne, president of Sepanso Gironde, who is seeking the cancellation of the building permit before the administrative court with Surfrider Foundation – the hearing, at which the continuation of the work is suspended, is expected by the end of the year. While he has "a lot of trouble believing all these announcements, all these promises" surrounding a project that is "incongruous in any case", Philippe Barbedienne does not consider it "an essential issue": "There are much more serious things in Gironde, the LGV , the Pure Salmon aquaculture farm , the EMME refinery ..."