A “pink bomb” (an ecological and social bomb) in Gironde? The Pure Salmon company is planning the construction of a gigantic intensive salmon farming farm in Verdon-sur-Mer. And one that produces 10,000 tonnes of fish per year could have an impact on an underground drinking water reserve. This is the concern raised by the Regional Environmental Authority Mission (MRAe) of Nouvelle-Aquitaine in its opinion dated October 7.
Pure Salmon, financed by a Singaporean fund, wants to begin marketing its first salmon, fresh and smoked, in 2029. It wants to settle on a 14-hectare industrial site, belonging to the port of Bordeaux and located within the natural park. regional of Médoc. To supply the basins of its mega factory, the company plans to pump 6,500 m3 per day from a Plio-Quaternary aquifer of brackish water. “A particularly strong issue in the file concerns the preservation of the Eocene aquifer (present under the Plio-Quaternary aquifer and constituting a resource for the supply of drinking water), both on the quantitative and qualitative aspects (in particular by avoiding “aggravate the saline inputs into this aquifer)”, points out the MRAe in its report.
“The rest of the project will depend on the alert level”
“At this location, the Eocene is porous,” retorts Paul Milliotis, chairman of the board of directors of Pure Salmon France, “the waters of the ocean and the estuary infiltrate there. So, in any case, we cannot say that the water there is clean or drinkable: it is saline and this has been proven. But, obviously, there must not be any impact nonetheless. » For its part, the environmental authority requests that the geological and mining research office (BRGM) assess the risk of impact on the Eocene aquifer, which it considers to be drinkable. “The rest of the project will depend on the alert level of the BRGM,” says Nicolas Thierry, Girondin EELV deputy.
However, nothing seems to hinder the optimistic communication of Pure Salmon which declares through the voice of its president: “we are very confident, this should confirm what the local water commission (CLE) Sage said in June, namely that there was no interaction between the aquifer in which we pump, semi-superficial at a depth of 40 meters, and the deep aquifers. »
Water consumption of a town of 43,000 inhabitants
However, the MRAe also points out the very large volumes of water pumped (6,500 m3 of water), equivalent to the consumption of a town of 43,000 inhabitants, and asks the company to work on more water-efficient alternatives. “This perspective, while the water that I pump is brackish, that is to say completely unusable by man and for agriculture, is, in my opinion, not necessarily very relevant,” says the chairman of the board of directors of Pure Salmon France.
Convinced that its project is irreproachable, Pure Salmon goes even further by arguing that “it is infinitely renewable brackish water, because it is infiltration water from the sea and the estuary. “In other words, it’s water available as much as we want,” explains Paul Milliotis.
The environmental authority points out inadequacies in current studies and requests the opinion of BRGM experts. “It is up to the hydrologists to respond but, with excessive pumping, we can wonder if there could be an impact on the Eocene water table,” says MP Nicolas Thierry. We cannot say that this withdrawal of 6,500 m3 is neutral. »
“The water problem does not exist”, assures Pure Salmon
“The water problem does not exist because we are not depriving anyone of water and we have no impact on any water table, this is what our investigations prove”, further guarantees Paul Milliotis, specifying that Pure Salmon will reject the same volume (6,500 m3) of impeccably cleaned water, thanks to its RAS system (for “recirculating aquaculture systems”). The chairman of the board of directors also ensures that with the RAS no disease ever occurs in the group’s farms, while the MRAe asks him to consider possible treatments for his fish and the related risks for water contamination.
For his part, Nicolas Thierry underlines that the figure concerning water withdrawals has changed significantly since the launch of the super project, going from 1,500 to 6,500 m3 per day. “For me, this project embodies a logic where the economy takes precedence at all costs over the preservation of the environment,” he says, before warning of the risk of “reproducing the worst practices” with disregard for good. -be animal with this industrial project. “We are criticized for the size of the project but without this scale, it would be impossible to spend 30 million euros on an efficient and quality water filtration system,” responds the general director of Pure Salmon France on this point. You have to understand that we have a salmon farming farm backed by a water filtration plant. »
The highly anticipated BRGM expertise should take place at the end of December for the start of a public inquiry towards the end of January 2025 and a possible authorization from the prefect in the summer of 2025. If there are proven risks, even moderate, Nicolas Thierry hopes that the authorities will take full account of this.