2024

Pb: Lead, Zn: Zinc, As: Arsenic. Three chemical compounds which can be found all over France, namely in the soil and vegetable gardens in & around Metaleurop (ex-Peñarroya), Total and Arkema industrial sites. The coastline of Marseille is no exception. Places like the Calanques des Goudes, the Corbières beach, or even the Estaque have suffered from generations of factories off-loading their waste into the sea or operating without taking into consideration the populations living nearby.

The old open-air mine owned in part by Retia (ex-subsidiary of Total) and in part Recyclex (ex-Metaleurop, ex-Peñarroya) is scheduled to have been depolluted by 2025. The contaminated dirt is being shoved into concrete silos, mostly below ground. There has, however, been no news as to the gardens & vegetable gardens of the estaqueens who live next to the site.

Pb_Zn_As is a warning to the population of the Estaque and an accusation for the companies and municipality who have ignored the people living with their industrial pollution for, in some cases, nearly 100 years.