Chemical plant back in court over pollution of Calanques national park

Alteo, renowned as a world leader in the production of aluminium, is back in the dock after environmental groups and residents of France's Bouches-du-Rhône department say the chemical manufacturer is continuing to discharge poisonous effluent into the Mediterranean Sea, despite previous indictments to reign-in the company's waste disposal activities.

After discharging millions of tonnes of toxic red mud into the Rhone estuary, the Alteo plant has allegedly continued to pollute the Calanques national park near Marseille with its liquid effluent.

Four years after the opening of a judicial investigation into "endangering the lives of others", the Marseilles public prosecutor's office now believes there is sufficient evidence to support arguments put forward for years by local residents and environmental associations who had been denouncing the ongoing pollution caused by the company's manufacturing facility in the town of Gardannes. 

The Marseilles public prosecutor's office maintains that the plant continued to discharge its effluent "without complying with the emission limit values" assigned to it, confirming an indictment dated 17 October, that was revealed on Friday by the French daily Le Monde.

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According to Marseille public prosecutor Nicolas Bessone, between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2021, Alteo is suspected of having "directly or indirectly allowed one or more substances to flow into the waters of the sea ... action or reactions of which have even temporarily led to harmful effects on health or damage to flora or fauna".

However, several prefectural decrees authorising the company to temporarily waive the toxicity thresholds for its liquid effluents at sea were nevertheless issued in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2020 – in particular to safeguard several hundred jobs.

Despite this apparent "right to pollute", Alteo has not yet complied with the waivers' terms: the effluent it discharges into the Mediterranean still contains concentrations that are too high for one or more of the parameters covered by the decrees – including heavy metals such as mercury, zinc, copper and arsenic.

Environmental scandal

Under pressure from environmental groups and following a directive issued at the end of 2015, the plant already had to stop discharging solid bauxite waste – the raw material for aluminum oxide, known as red mud – into the sea.

For over 50 years, the plant had discharged at least 20 million tonnes laden with arsenic and cadmium.

In recent years, Alteo has only discharged liquid effluent, which is the reason behind the latest injunction.

Solid waste has been stored in the open air at Bouc-Bel-Air, near Gardanne. 

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The prosecution follows a complaint lodged in 2018 – notably by environmental associations and local residents near the plant alleging a health and environmental scandal – for "endangering others".

Their aim is to put a definitive stop to all Alteo's discharges and to condemn it for past pollution.

The company's new chairman, Alain Moscatello, has tried to strike a conciliatory tone by saying: "Alteo has taken note of the indictment. Since its takeover in 2021, the site has undergone a major industrial transformation, with the effective cessation of bauxite refining. We are also actively pursuing our efforts to reduce our environmental footprint."

"We inherited a liability, and we are striving to do better, to do well", he added.

Founded in 1894, Alteo is the world's oldest aluminum oxide plant.

It imports its raw materials mainly from Guinea to make white alumina, which is used in armaments, the automotive industry and the manufacture of mobile phones.