Volume 45 - No. 38
September 17, 2015
by lyle e davis
Editor’s Note: Thomas M Abercrombie, President, Environmental Waste Disposal, writes a troubling essay about a beautiful part of France that is, even today, very dangerous to visit. The essay is illustrated by the brilliant photography of Olivier Saint Hilaire: Most of us who have traveled in France never gave any thought to the terrible aftermath of two world wars on that soil. It's a surprise to most of us that there is contamination after these two great conventional wars of the 20th century.
Of course, chemical weapons were used extensively in WWI so there's no surprise there.
When you imagine France and its scenic countryside, you might think of the picturesque villages, vineyards a plenty and endless rolling green hills to drive through on a blissful summer road trip. But there’s one corner of this scenic country that no one has been allowed to enter for nearly a century, known as the “Zone Rouge” (the red zone).
Pictured below is an artist’s impression of the forsaken territory, originally covering more than 460 sq miles in the years following the Great War. Today, around 100km2 (roughly the size of Paris), is still strictly prohibited by law from public entry and agricultural use because of an impossible amount of human remains and unexploded chemical munitions yet to be recovered from the battlefields of both world wars. Step inside the real “No GoZone”…
After WWI, unable to keep up with the impossible task of removing endless undetonated weapons, human and animal remains, the French government decided on a forced relocation of residents which led to the creation of the Zone Rouge. Entire villages wiped off the map were considered “casualties of war.” Once manicured farmland was The Paper - 760.747.7119
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abandoned, and without human presence, soon became unrecognisable thick forestland.
For decades however, much of this deceivingly lush forestland was still regularly used by forest keepers and hunters until 2004, when German researchers found extremely dangerous levels of up to 17% arsenic in the soil, tens of thousand times higher than levels typically found previously within the red zones.
The water in the area was found to contain toxic levels of arsenic that were 300 times above the tolerated amount and abnormally high lead levels were recorded in some animals, particularly in the livers of hunted wild boars.
The nearby residents, forest keepers and hunters of the area, were never subject to any medical study. Authorities finally prohibited public access to the site in 2012, known locally now as “Place-à-Gaz.” The French government actually formed a special agency dedicated entirely to the ongoing munitions clearing, called the Department duDeminage. Over time they’ve managed to reduce the size of the red zone and return less affected zones to civilian and agricultural use. Unfortunately, in several cases, this was done much too prematurely…
The map on page 3 indicates the red zone and the less dangerous zones in yellow, green and blue. (Color in digital ver-
The Red Zone Continued on Page 2
sion of The Paper. In black and white the red will be the darkest color) Until the mid 1970s, much of the “clean-up” was only done superficially, destroying hundreds of thousands of unexplored WWI chemical bombs without considering the leaks and contamination to the soil and water.
Alarming amounts of lead debris scattered by shrapnel were also left in place, contaminating the soil with non biodegradable lead, mercury and zinc likely to remain for at least 10,000 years to come. After WWI, in a rush to convert areas for the growth of crops or livestock, the first industrial pig farm was estab-