BERRE LAGOON

1
BERRE LAGOON
?Environmental setting ?The GIPREB organization
and goals ?The Lagoon monitoring programme
2
Environmental setting
155 km2 watershed 1700 km2 600 000 inh. mean
depth 6m max. depth 9,5m vol. 980 million m3
strong anthropic pressure throughout the 20th
century ?Industrial and urban pollution ?Modifica
tion of sea lagoon exchanges ?Huge freshwater
runoff from the Durance river diversion for the
alimentation of a hydroelectric power plant
3
Environmental setting
Decrease of salinity, hydrological instability,
haline stratification ?hydroelectric
plant Eutrophication ?urban effluents,
watershed inputs
Chimical contamination ?petrochemistry
4
Environmental setting
freshwater runoff instability
5
Environmental setting
freshwater runoff haline stratification
Impacts over benthic communities
6
The GIPREB
Brief history 70s fishermen demonstrations
against the lagoon pollution, joined by
inhabitants and local politicians 1991 a local
referendum obtains a large majority (95) in
favour of the stop of freshwater inputs 1994
visit of the Minister of the Environment. French
government initiates a restoration plan
limitation of freshwater inputs, measures against
eutrophication 1998 actions of fishermen
against EDF, then of the European Commission
against the French State (in progress)
Afterwards, until 2000, a strongly conflictual
climate generates difficulties in the dialogue
between citizens and institutional stakeholders
7
The GIPREB
an original structure in the french institutions
to gather the actors of the debate the French
State (Minister of Ecology and sustainable
Development, local State agencies), the Water
Agency, regional and local assemblies, the cities
located along the shoreline, professional and
associative users
for the implementation of a dialogue between
all actors for the common development of
projects of environmental restoration
Two projects are actively defended by the
political members of the GIPREB ?the re-opening
of the tunnel of Rove to the sea water
circulation ?Derivation towards the Rhone of
water of the channel feeding EDF hydroelectric
plant
8
Scientific/technical issues
the Monitoring programme ? water (salinity, O2,
N, P, etc.) ? sediment (N, P, contaminants) ?
biology (benthic macrofauna, Zoostera
meadows) Specific studies ? re-opening of the
tunnel of Rove ? consequences of the stop of
EDF freshwater discharge ? 3D hydrodynamic
modelization ? river inputs (SM, N, P, OM) ?
sea-lagoon exchanges (SM, N, P, OM) ?
experimental juvenil mussel culture Promoting
Ph-D thesis
9
Scientific/technical issues
In 1998 the European Commission received a
complaint concerning damage to the aquatic
environment of the Etang de Berre, principally as
a result of freshwater discharge by EDF
hydroelectric power plant.
An action is now engaged against the French
State, considering that the Berre lagoon falls
within the scope of application of the Protocol
for the protection of the Mediterranean Sea
against pollution from Land-based Sources (the
Athens Protocol).
As a consequence, the French Government recently
proposed to modify the conditions of freshwater
discharge by the EDF plant, in the framework of a
4-years experimentation, including -the
limitation of silt inputs (60 000 T/y) -the
smoothing of water inputs on a weekly scale, to
attenuate salinity variations -a specific
monitoring programme aimed at checking the
efficiency of these measures according to
biological objectives
10
Scientific/technical issues
11
(No Transcript)