Fight Against Waste Dump Continues

FIGHT AGAINST WASTE DUMP CONTINUES 
by Sue Finley 
For those selling yearlings this week, the focus, of course, has been on the Arqana sale and the fight to be on top of the list of leading consignors. But for those who live in the Norman horse country around the Arqana sales grounds, a much larger fight has taken place over the past year, one which may threaten the very ground on which some of the world’s best horses are raised. 
Breeders who live in Normandy were shocked in 2013 when the French administrative tribunal allowed the opening of a waste dump, operated by the conglomerate GDE (Guy Dauphin Environment), which would have allowed 2.5 million tons of automobile waste to be dumped into the agricultural lands less than 500 meters from the center of the small village of Nonant. In an area populated by 160 stud farms, some of which directly surround the waste site, the fear of contamination of the pristine lands was a serious concern. 
The site, on 135 acres–the size of 20 soccer stadiums–would have seen between 60 and 90 trucks a day coming through an area which contains some of the most famous horse farms in France. With the material slated to be buried both above and below ground, the site ultimately would have reached the height of a 20-story building. 
But just two days into the project, the local population organized a blockade of the site in the classic French style, which has put a stop to the dumping for the past 300 days. Over 200 volunteers have manned the gates round the clock since that time, prohibiting the trucks from entering the site while the two sides have fought the battle in the French courts. 
At the center of the fight are two groups, Sauvegarde des Terres d’Elevage and Nonant Environnement, opposing the dump. 
Amid the resistance is Haras des Capucines’ Eric Puerari, who has joined the volunteers and led the fight in the courts. With a recent victory in criminal court, Puerari is hopeful that the battle will soon be won. 
On May 13, GDE was convicted of illegal waste management by the Criminal Court of Argentan and was ordered to permanently close the site. The company is appealing the decision. 
“In the criminal courts, GDE has been condemned to close the site because they put some illicit garbage in the form of tires on the site and had no inclination to stop doing so,” said Puerari. “They are only supposed to have old parts of automobiles, plastics and no tires because they are very polluting. We found evidence by going over the site that there were a quantity of tires [dumped there].” Puerari said that GDE’s appeal will be decided in November. 
The groups have also taken the fight to the civil courts. 
“Under civil law, we are waiting for a decision from the judge on Sept. 4 to close the site for the moment because all of the water treatment systems have been shown to not be functioning from the very start,” said Puerari. “They were badly made, badly designed, and there was no treatment of the used water at all.” 
Both sides in the fight are also suing one another. 
Puerari’s partner in Capucines, Michel Zerolo, who has also been active in the resistance, said, “the used water was flowing back into a small stream, and it was shown to have 10 times the normal amount of iron.” That stream ultimately flows into the larger Dieuge and Orne rivers, which in turn flow into the sea at Ouistreham. 
“They dumped for two days,” said Zerolo. “It could have been 17 years.” 
Zerolo said that the groups had spent over €1 million in legal fees on the fight, much of which was donated from local farmers and the horse industry–both Standardbred and Thoroughbred–and through an auction of donated stallion seasons. 
Zerolo said that a recent ruling could stop further implementation of all such waste dumps in Europe, meaning that a victory at Nonant-Le-Pin would effectively be an end to the practice throughout the continent. 
With the World Equestrian Games coming to Normandy at the end of the month, Puerari hopes to focus the eyes of the entire equestrian world on the issue. 
“From Aug. 23 to Sept. 7, the World Equestrian Games will be hosted in Normandy, while a few kilometers from Haras du Pin, where the dressage and cross-country events take place, an enormous industrial waste landfill threatens to pollute exceptional breeding lands for 50 years,” said Puerari. “How is it possible to celebrate horses and their related sports and remain blind to the massacre of lands once honored by King Louis XIV, when he created the Haras du Pin, nicknamed the Versailles of the Horse?” 
Puerari said that a movement is underway to get the lands classified as a UNESCO Heritage Site, which would allow them to remain unchanged forever. In the meantime, he is asking for supporters to meet at the gates of the site Aug. 28 and 29 to join in the protest. 
“In this year of celebration of the century of the beginning of the First World War, let us remember that against injustice and danger, there is only one recipe: the mobilization and solidarity of all,” he said.