Little support for seaweed cleanup
€134 million government package to rid Brittany’s coastline of toxic seaweed has failed to win support
A €134 million government package to rid Brittany’s coastline of toxic seaweed has failed to win support from farmers and ecology groups.
Junior Ecology Minister Chantal Jouanno has set up a task-force whose job will be to clear, store and treat the algues vertes from the region’s beaches ready for the summer holiday season.
She also wants to see a 40% drop in nitrate levels in Brittany’s rivers by 2015.
The fertiliser chemical, linked to intensive farming, makes its way to sea where the seaweed thrives on it.
Ms Jouanno warned: “The effects of preventative action will not be seen for a few years.”
Tonnes of algae have washed up on the Channel coast since the 1970s, but the issue gained momentum last July when a horse died and its rider passed out from inhaling the fumes given off by the weed at Saint-Michel-en-Grève, Côtes-d’Armor.
A national research group, overseen by sea science body Ifremer, will be set up to look at the phenomenon and learn more about the weed’s toxicity.
Farmers fear the new controls on nitrate levels will harm productivity.
The president of a local farmers’ union, Michel Bloc’h, said: “We are not the only ones responsible for the seaweed but once again we’re the ones in the firing line.”
Environmental campaigners say more money needs to be spent tackling the problem at source – improving farming techniques and cleaning up the water supply – instead of taking action after the seaweed has formed.
A spokesman for the Urgence Marées Vertes campaign group, Denis Baulier, said the plan lacked ambition.
“This plan does not apply the basic principle of ‘polluter pays’. Once again the government and local councils will pick up the bill,” he said.
The president of the Eau et Rivières de Bretagne association, Jean-François Piquot, said the government was burying its head in the sand.
He said: “During discussions there seemed to be a willingness to act but that has not translated into a plan. Farmers will continue to pump out too many nitrates and the problem will not be solved.”
