Optic 2000
A sacred union made Port 2000, the plural left and the singular right with the assistance of the President of the Republic – who proclaimed in September of 1995 that Port 2000 is “a project of national economic importance and major political interest” – and to the communist Minister of Transportation, the inexhaustible Mr. Gayssot who will not cease to carry budgetary additions on each of his visits to Porte Océane. Only SOS Estuaire and Robin des Bois have grappled with this machine.
The full extent of the risks
Port 2000 will manipulate and stockpile all classes of hazardous materials. The CIM area encompasses 100 meters in the back of the container parks. CIM (Industrial and Maritime Company) has the capacity to stock 5 million tons of oil and is subject to the Seveso directive. To reduce the domino effect between the two installations, in case of industrial accidents, it did not bode well during the initial stages of the project. Then the idea for a slope – measuring 1 to 2 meters long, 60 meters wide at the base, and 17 meters high – was introduced. Experts and third-experts considered it the surest solution concerning the reduction of missile effects and the confinement of toxic and thermal flows. This option would have reduced the availability of container parks by 20%; consequently, this precaution was deemed “unacceptable in regards to the public investment made in other respects to the maritime infrastructure.” The work was surrendered for the profit from two container stacks separated by a corridor measuring 46 meters and functioning as an internal passageway. It was advised that these screen walls be composed of four levels of containers; but the final product consists of only three containers. The structure’s ability to prevent risks is weakened. Example: “Unlike a wall consisting of four containers, a wall of merely three containers does not allow for the containment of zone Z1 (lethal, NDLR) resulting in the escape of chlorinate.” CIM, under pressure from DRIRE (Regional office of Industry, Research, and Environment), dismantled a holding tank of 150,000 tons encrusted in the area of Port 2000. In exchange, CIM negotiated with Port Autonome the prolongation of the concession that expires in 2019.
Optic 2000
A sacred union made Port 2000, the plural left and the singular right with the assistance of the President of the Republic – who proclaimed in September of 1995 that Port 2000 is “a project of national economic importance and major political interest” – and to the communist Minister of Transportation, the inexhaustible Mr. Gayssot who will not cease to carry budgetary additions on each of his visits to Porte Océane. Only SOS Estuaire and Robin des Bois have grappled with this machine.
The full extent of the risks
Port 2000 will manipulate and stockpile all classes of hazardous materials. The CIM area encompasses 100 meters in the back of the container parks. CIM (Industrial and Maritime Company) has the capacity to stock 5 million tons of oil and is subject to the Seveso directive. To reduce the domino effect between the two installations, in case of industrial accidents, it did not bode well during the initial stages of the project. Then the idea for a slope – measuring 1 to 2 meters long, 60 meters wide at the base, and 17 meters high – was introduced. Experts and third-experts considered it the surest solution concerning the reduction of missile effects and the confinement of toxic and thermal flows. This option would have reduced the availability of container parks by 20%; consequently, this precaution was deemed “unacceptable in regards to the public investment made in other respects to the maritime infrastructure.” The work was surrendered for the profit from two container stacks separated by a corridor measuring 46 meters and functioning as an internal passageway. It was advised that these screen walls be composed of four levels of containers; but the final product consists of only three containers. The structure’s ability to prevent risks is weakened. Example: “Unlike a wall consisting of four containers, a wall of merely three containers does not allow for the containment of zone Z1 (lethal, NDLR) resulting in the escape of chlorinate.” CIM, under pressure from DRIRE (Regional office of Industry, Research, and Environment), dismantled a holding tank of 150,000 tons encrusted in the area of Port 2000. In exchange, CIM negotiated with Port Autonome the prolongation of the concession that expires in 2019.
“The Love Boat”
According to the latest press news, the Norway (ex-France) Ocean liner will be sent to the ship breakers; instead of Bangladesh it could be sent to Alang beach in India. Before being towed to Port Kedang in Malaysia the 23rd of May 2005 where she is waiting for the final decision from the owner, Genting Corporation (which is the largest financial group of Malaysia), the Norway was docked for 18 months at Bremerhaven in Germany (1). Public opinion, the Green Party, ecologist movements and the German Authorities were not interested in her fate. This endangered masterpiece was guarded in Germany by a Nepalese crew of 45. The Norway is a masterpiece in danger but also a health, a medical and an environmental hazard: one of the engine rooms of the Norway blew up causing a deadly explosion which happened in May 2003, spreading the asbestos from the insulation at least to the third bridge of the ship. The Norway is a double victim of the asbestos pollution : she suffered the “passive” pollution from the fire protection, and heat insulations, but also from an “active” pollution due to the explosion. Despite the foggy image left hanging in illusion by her owner in the direction of a re-conversion, nobody ever really believed in any other destination for the Norway except the ship breakers’; for this temple of asbestos, the Basel Convention, the pre-treatment and the extraction of the other hazardous substances and pollutants such as the PCB’s (Polychlorinated biphenyls) were never addressed.
