GDE HEAD PROMISES DUMPING WILL RESUME

by Sue Finley 

Hugues Moutouh, director general of Guy Dauphin Environment (GDE) told the news outlet ouest-france.fr that the company will not wait for the current round of environmental testing to be completed before resuming dumping activities in their landfill in the heart of Thoroughbred horse country in Normandy, France. “We will not yield to any blackmail,” Moutouh said. “This means that we will not stop our business because every five or six months we are asked for new expert evidence. This is a reversal of the burden of proof and it’s just incredible.” 

Monday morning, an estimated 70 French police arrived on the site of the contested landfill to force out the protestors who have blocked the entrance to the site and prevented dumping for over 350 days as they contest the legality and ecological effects of the dumping.

Yesterday, GDE erected massive stone walls around the entrance with a temporary metal swinging door, presumably to allow the arrival of trucks filled with industrial waste products that will be dumped at the site. “This will obviously mean the resumption of our industrial activities, in compliance with laws and regulations,” Moutouh told ouest-france.fr. 

One of the contested matters is whether or not the dumped material contains car and truck tires, which environmental groups protest have been dumped illegally and are a pollutant. “The dumping of discarded tires that has been contested is the subject of a debate between experts and the courts,” Moutouh told ouest-france.fr. “It doesn’t concern just the GDE site at Nonant-le-Pin, but at landfill sites all over France. It’s a national problem.” Opponents told FranceTV that they would reconstruct their encampments elsewhere, and planned to stage protests this week.