the appeal before the Council of State of a company to operate a Seveso site refused
The Council of State refused to accept the appeal of Odièvre, which challenged the cancellation of its authorization to operate a storage site for Seveso phytosanitary products, classified as Seveso high threshold north of Rouen.
Read alsoFire at a Norman Seveso Servier site: one seriously injured, no pollution
Subsidiary of the Cap Seine cooperative group, Odièvre asked for the cancellation of a judgment of the administrative court of appeal of Douai. This in May 2021, confirmed the cancellation of the prefectural decree which authorized Odièvre to store up to 4150 tonnes of pesticides in Vieux-Manoir, north of Rouen, a site classified as Seveso high threshold. “The appeal of Odièvre is not allowed“, indicates the Council of State in its decision dated March 11.
The Odièvre company argued that the judgment of the Douai Administrative Court of Appeal was attached “of irregularity», «errors of law” and of “distortion, in that it holds that the platform is likely to cause serious or irreparable damage to persons and property“. The Council of State, recalling that “admission is refused by court decision if the appeal is inadmissible or is not based on any serious grounds“, highlighted “that none of these grounds is such as to allow the appeal to be admitted“.
Read alsoGas leak “plugged” in a Seveso factory in Isère
In October 2019, the administrative court of Rouen, seized in April 2018 of a request for annulment of this decree of June 21, 2017 by the Association for the defense of the five municipalities of the plateau of Buchy, had already annulled the prefectural decree authorizing the operation of this high-threshold Seveso site. The court then revealed that a risk of accident linked to the activity of the site would be likely “cause serious or irreparable damage to persons and property“, recalling that a poultry farm, three houses and a station were located”less than 300 meters from the site“. The file had been examined by the court two weeks after the gigantic fire at the Lubrizol factory in Rouen on September 26.