Located on the edge of the Mediterranean, the L’Estaque site overlooks the sea and offers a spectacular view of Marseille’s harbor. In 1883, Rio Tinto set up factories in L’Estaque to produce sodium salts and sulfuric acid from pyrites. In 1916, after changes in ownership, the fledgling metal operations expanded to the east under Peñarroya , while the chemical operations developed to the west under Kuhlmann. The peak years for the plants were the period between 1970 and 1975. After the French chemical industry was restructured in 1983, the Atochem (later Elf Atochem) chemical plant was shut down in 1989, while Métaleurop, which had replaced Peñarroya as the operator of the metal plant, decommissioned the facility in 2001.
In view of the plants’ location and the legacy contamination from the manufacturing operations, the Municipality of Marseille and the Regional Directorate of Industry, Research and the Environment (DRIRE) sought a remediation program for the brownfield facility. A number of prefectural orders were issued between 1992 and 1998, with the last one setting specific remediation objectives to be validated by a health assessment. At the same time, the DRIRE encouraged the two manufacturers to work out a joint solution to treat the contaminated soil at their respective sites, which was done in February 2000. Discussions were also held to determine the future use of the land. The Municipality of Marseille asked for and obtained an assurance that after remediation, the land would be suitable for residential purposes—the toughest standard from an environmental standpoint. Further decrees were issued in 2002 and 2005, while the completion date, pushed back from 2002 to 2005, is now set for mid-2007.
Negotiations with the DRIRE led to the definition of the project baseline. The contaminated soil, usually containing metal and sometimes some organic matter, is being removed and possibly treated before being contained in a giant, leaktight sarcophagus. Initial soil estimates of 160,000 cubic meters for Métaleurop and 223,400 cubic meters for Atofina were quickly revised upward to 270,000 and 435,000 cubic meters respectively. As a result, the size of the sarcophagus was reviewed, but not the containment principle, which is similar to the one used for a Class 1 landfill. The storage facility is located in a disused gravel quarry.
Construction of the first two cells began in 2000. Technical and administrative problems delayed the start of filling until April 2004. Storage of the first 180,000 cubic meters was completed in early 2006 and the cap is now being laid.
The second section still has to be built, using a more suitable civil engineering technique, and filled. The project is not significantly behind schedule. The project cost, originally estimated on the basis of an overly simplistic definition, has been revised upward twice, because of dead ends in the initial design and because the amounts to be treated were underestimated.
Métaleurop’s financial problems, which began in 2003, led us to separate our project from its project to avoid incurring penalties for delays. |
