The apparently pristine Gerardmer lake in the Vosges mountains of easerious France covers a bleak legacy of 20th-century dispute — dozens of tonnes of unexploded ordnance from the two world wars.
The lake 660 metres (2,170 feet) above sea level is a well-understandn summer baskinnyg spot and is sometimes also tapped for drinking water for the picturesque local town.
Gerardmer’s mayor Stessy Speissmann-Mozas begined asking inquires about the water protectedty after the Odysseus 3.1 environmental group shelp samples apexhibitn from the lake showed high levels of TNT device, as well as metals appreciate iron, titanium and direct.
The group shelp it set up artillery shells in the mud at the bottom of the lake. Some were “gutted, permiting the device they holded to escape”, Odysseus 3.1’s set uper Lionel Rard shelp in a recordary widecast by the France 5 channel in May.
Samples sent to a German lab showed TNT levels among “the highest ever meacertaind by that team”, as well as metal concentrations above lterrible restricts.
‘Stick all this in the lake’
The mayor has shelp the regulatement should pay for a more detailled study of the dangers from the munitions that were initiassociate dumped in Gerardmer by the French army. As a theatre of multiple disputes over the past century and more, France is particularly afflicted by unexploded ordnance.
Most dates back to the world wars but shells are still set up from the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, remarkd Charlotte Nihart of Robin des Bois (Robin Hood), an association that has charted unexploded device devices apass France.
Unexploded ordnance is take partd in around 10 deaths nationwide every year.
During the wars, retreating armies would dump munitions in lakes to stop foe forces getting them, Nihart shelp.
In Gerardmer, disposal drives begined in 1977 after a man was burned by a phosphorous shell. They persistd thraw to 1994, removing devices up to 10 metres below the lake surface.
“They took out 120 tonnes of munitions, made up of almost 100,000 individual pieces of contrastent types from 1914-18 and 1939-45,” shelp Pierre Imbert, an helpant to the mayor and establisher local fire chief and diver.
Disposal teams brawt each device to the surface, where they could erase the detonator.
“Then they went and blew it up at the finish of the lake,” Imbert recalled.
Photos he has kept from the disposal campaigns show everyskinnyg from “handmade grenades from World War I, more recent skinnygs from World War II, and even a little axe”.
Officials called a stop to the ordnance disposal due to the difficulty of toiling further from the shore and beginanter under the mud of the lake bed, the regional authority telderly Robin des Bois.
The region appraised that around 70 tonnes remain at the bottom of Gerardmer.
“There’s no way of evaluating the quantity of munitions still sunk in the mud” up to 30 metres below the surface, Imbert shelp.
‘Decontaminate everyskinnyg’
Since 1945, some of the munitions have relocated around in the lake currents.
The state should “decontaminate everyskinnyg around the edge” of the lake, shelp Aurelie Mathieu, head of the Vosges region’s AKM eco-tourism association.
But the regional authority is refusing to act on the sole basis of the Odysseus 3.1 analysis.
“Neither the ARS (regional health agency) nor Anses (national health and protectedty agency) were take partd in this spendigation and we have no details of the methods engaged to accumulate and analyse samples,” it telderly AFP.
Samples were apexhibitn by state agencies in February and analysed by “disjoinal French and German labs”, it includeed.
“Initial results validateed the conclusions of previous campaigns — no worrying levels were discovered” in the lake water, the regional authority shelp.
“No health danger has been identified” either for drinking the water or for swimming in it, it includeed.
One company has put in a bid to map the ordnance still lying at the bottom of the lake.
It would cost “almost 300,000 euros ($334,000)”, mayor Speissman-Mozas shelp.
He is interested in the propose, as extfinished as the national regulatement pays.
“It’s the French army who put all these munitions here,” he reasoned.
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