Protecting water as a commun ressource: local and international examples

You'll find below the letter addressed to the mayor, different environemental's associations and departments representatives :

Dear Madam, Mister,

 Following the Black Mountain Company project presentation in Decembre 2019, in Fraïsse sur Agoût's townhall, we decided to form a collective to discuss about the environemental and economical impacts that a whisky factory project would have within the Haut Languedoc Natural Park, at the "Rajal" site. 

We were surprised that this project was presented as acted, advertised within the local newspapers when no one from the population had been consulted yet, neither a public survey distributed amongst the population to gather the inhabtants view on the matter. 

We then planned a public information meeting on March the 14th 2020 which couldn't be held, due to the pandemic situation (first confinement). We are willing to pursue our initiative by consulting you about this project,  located near the "Vésoles" lake and in the heart of the "Haut Languedoc Regional Natural Park". 

Our reason to question this project is that the waters ressource exploitation could be thinkable in 1990's , it is not the case anymore, according the the climate and environemental actual context.

 Indeed this factory implantation is inadequat for several reasons: 

- it is located near Vesoles lake, an area appreciated for its calm,  beauty and landscapes variety. It is a really well known site for hikers, mushrooms foragers, "green tourism" users.

Pouring concrete on 4700m2 , using 5 hectares of land would be totally in contradiction with the villages presentation online, on the national green tourism label's website. This area is rich in biodiversity and partly located on a zone classified as ZNIEFF ( Natural Zone with high Flora and Fauna interest)

It is surrounded by 3 wetlands, ancient, stable and biodiverse environements and include a waterspring's site.  

This spring is particularly precious now, due to global warming and the recent population's issues:  the seasonal's lack of water is already there , stream are reducing during summer, spring water reducing or drying out, some farmers are forced to fill out containers until the middle of november to give water to their cattle. 

A responsible for waters ressource local estimation has been allocated within the Natural Regional Park in 2019; but to this date we still dont have any information about the studies conclusions.  Are the need for the inhabitants,  agriculture known and recorded by this study yet? 

After consulting the projects documents at the town hall, it appeared that the environemental impact study , founded by Black Mountain company is not sufficeient and not complete, especially due to the fact that the managers are planning an activity extension throughout the years. The major impact on landscapes, air pollution, hearing , smelling pollution and possible rejections on vegetation around the site are simply not mentionned. This is the study that has been taken into account by the Scot ( Terrotirial Cohesion Scheme ) to authorize this project. A new and independant evaluation and impact investigation seems necessary and legitimate. 

A whisky factory would cause irreversible damages to the natural area and would affect local waters ressource. By using 1/3 of the spring waters ressources ( as evaluated in 2015) this project would force the village to give up on its waters ressource and oblige us to provide sufficient water for the industry no matter what would be the drought situation or the possible needs for the inhabitants. But what will be this resource like in 30 years time?

 It is not acceptable to loose this commun ressource and land. The impact on lanscapes, biodiversity, wetlands and waters ressources are known as well as the impact on the airs quality and hearing pollution that it will cause. And all that for a private project that is in no way a need for the inhabitants and not valorising the natural diversity of the area. ( Natural Regional Park). Moreover the springwaters in the natural regional park are already all exploited, except this one ( bottled water "la Salvetat " and " Mount Roucous") 

The financial input would be really low and the commune will have to pay for the factory's surrounding cleaning up , because grazing will not be possible anymore. In terms of employment, the project isnt clearly defined: maybe one position would be created, but with no actual guaranttee. 

If we understand well where is the interested for this compagny to use this exceptional land and water ressource, we do not understand where the interest for the village stands. 

A public survey should happen soon and we invite you to participate. When the weather will aloow it our collective will organise a meeting and hiking day where we could all discuss and eat together , where you could access to all the information we gathered and discuss with hydrogeology specialist on the site . For any information you can contact us on leaubiencommunvital34@gmail.com

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg60sr38oic&t=50s&ab_channel=CBCNews

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