Dunkerque, France
The Industrial Environment Scheme

Summary

The autonomous Port of Dunkerque includes an industrial area which houses steel, petrochemical, nuclear and agrofood industries which are relatively polluting. In 1992, the stakeholders involved in this area (elected representatives, administrations, industrialists and voluntary bodies) decided to prepare a document aiming to plan the economic development of the harbour zone while respecting a number of environmental criteria: the Industrial Environment Scheme (SEI). The implementation of this consultation tool (SEI committee) enabled the joint local authorities to start a dialogue, mainly with industrialists and voluntary bodies, on the industrial location and development applications for the harbour zone, and thus to limit conflicts.

Objectives

The objectives are to develop and equip the industrial area while respecting environmental criteria. To re-valorise the image of Dunkerque and its industrial area. To attract new enterprises. To improve the local environment in spite of a strong industrial presence. To set up consultation and mediation tools between all the partners: local authorities, voluntary organisations for the protection of the environment, administrations and industrialists.

State of the project

Approved in 1993, the SEI is still in operation.

Context

The Dunkerque port area (6 000 hectares), the third biggest French port, contains steel, petrochemical, agrofood, and nuclear activities which give it its current buoyancy but they also involve serious hazards (15 Dunkerque companies are classed as major hazard sites) and produce serious pollution.

During the 80s, the industries in Dunkerque were badly hit by the recession which meant massive job losses. To move out of the situation, elected representatives opted to count on industrial development but by taking measures likely to improve the local environment so as to guarantee the quality of life for the inhabitants.

As national and European regulations were reckoned too minimalist, in 1990 the Dunkerque Local Authority created the Permanent Secretariat for the Prevention of Industrial Pollution (SPPPI) so that all the partners from the industrial area could better manage the economic, social and environmental fall-out from the actions taken. The conflict generated by the application to locate the Du Pont de Nemours chemical works led elected representatives to go further in their approach by creating the Industrial Environment Scheme, which allows for overall planning of the development of the port's industrial land and to avoid problems in the future.

Strategy

The Urban Joint Authorities (CUD), the Autonomous Port Authority (PAD) and the Dunkerque Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCID), who all initiated the SEI, created a SEI Steering Committee in 1991. A technical working group was set up alongside involving the Région Nord-Pas de Calais, State departments (especially the DRIRE, Regional Directorate for Industry, Research and the Environment), the Dunkerque Promotion Agency (Prospecting and receiving investors) and the SPPPI, which includes industrialists, environmental protection organisations, the medical profession, the local press, etc. Work lasted two years under the authority of the Steering Committee and the SEI was approved in 1993 by the CUD, the PAD and the CCID. It forms part of the Dunkerque Conurbation Contract signed by the CUD, the state and the region in October 1991.

Activities

The SEI includes rules for industrial location and development, planning of services, landscaping principles and means of implementation. This constitutes an overall local framework of objectives enabling transparency in decision-making processes, the minimising of potential conflict and the organisation of consistent long-term development. In particular, the following are provided for:
- Any new industrial project (new plant or extension of existing installations) is to be submitted to an SPPPI committee, that is all the local partners, before an application for approval is filed. On top of the normal procedure, it allows for the presentation of the project's features, the work planned to reduce pollution, nuisance and hazard and to make the project coherent in the local context.
- For the whole industrial site, the needs are anticipated as much as possible and facilities made consistent. Industrial water supply was the subject of a study as early as 1993; in this field, developers are encouraged to favour networks which are common to several companies. As far as roads are concerned, unified programming especially envisages a gradual separation of industrial and urban roads. Rail links, waterways and telecommunication networks are the subject of special consideration.
- General specifications (clean technologies, improved available technologies, etc.) and special specifications (air, water, hazards, natural environment) all apply in terms of environmental protection. For instance, special monitoring zones were set up for high-risk industries to provide warranties to the population and local authorities, and to help industrialists to select locations. Development and management strategies for industrial waste and the transport of hazardous materials among other things, complete these specifications.

Partners

The Industrial Environmental Scheme holds regular meetings (at least once a year) of its steering committee which is made up of elected representatives from the industrial port zone, the administrations, environmental protection organisations and industrialists. For example, the Autonomous Dunkerque Port Authority, the DRIRE, the SPPPI, Dunkerque's Centre for Research on the Industrial Environment, the Employers' Union, etc. all take part in the meetings. The Committee's mission is to check that SEI measures are applied and to adapt them as needed to all fields. It is helped in its work by the Planning and Development Agency for the Flandre-Dunkerque Region and Dunkerque Promotion. The latter has to inform the steering committee on any exceptional siting case which might require arbitration. The Technical Committee which managed the scheme's technical work performs a permanent activity of reflection and making proposals.

Financing and resources

Created within the scope of the Conurbation Contract, development of the SEI cost FFr 1,2 million. Financing was secured from the contributions of the signatories (CUD, PAD, CCID) and funding from the 1989-1993 State/Region Plan.

Outcomes and impact

- Consultation has largely been accepted and has now become a routine. No project is developed unilaterally. The main change is that problems are dealt with well before industrial development proper takes place. Well before new plants are installed, elected representatives and administrations work openly with industrial executives, examining all the problems that might arise, through the SPPPI's "New Projects” committee.
- Nowadays, many industrialists do not see compulsory specifications as constraints but rather as criteria enabling them to improve their edge on the competition. Their involvement in SEI also allows them to improve their image with environmental groups and the public.
- The SEI has led to a change in the Autonomous Port Authority's working methods. The "environmental” part of the specifications for the port area has been rewritten; a number of land use regulations applying to the port site are being reviewed to take account of SEI measures (green corridors, special care zones, etc.).
- Through the SEI, the city of Dunkerque can meet the expectations of its inhabitants to develop economic activity while maintaining a certain level of quality of life.

Obstacles and difficulties

- Consultation proceedings are not adapted to "small” industrial applications.
- It is sometimes difficult to work with communes which are not directly affected by SEI dynamics.
- The high turnover of the economic leaders and public representatives in the consultation proceedings is detrimental to the shared knowledge of events and therefore to consultation. The quality of the consultation depends on the level of motivation among politicians and industrialists, and yet leading companies which create heavy pollution are sometimes represented in consultation proceedings by an engineer who does not hold any decision making power.
- The Dunkerque industrial area is still facing a large number of pollution problems caused rather by older plants than newer ones. Older established companies will need to adopt new technologies which are more environmentally friendly, but industrialists do not always have the necessary will or the financial means at their disposal to do so. There remain important problems to be dealt with such as residual waste, coal and factory dust and radioactivity.

Essential points

The SEI has meant that industrialists, local authorities and voluntary bodies could get closer together. Before 1990, there was a rift between economic circles and elected representatives. The disagreement is now settled; there is a joint commitment in relation to industrial areas. However, the State must now play a significant part in terms of monitoring since the local authority cannot replace it in this field.

SEI partners have realised that such a scheme represents an asset for the conurbation both from the industrialists' point of view (competitiveness, better image) and the elected representatives (attraction of new enterprises). Adopting an anticipatory rather than a reactive approach to the industrial environment has meant savings in time and money and a reduction of potential environmental damage.

The purpose of the SEI is not to create another set of regulations or to substitute existing regulations. It aims to make easier and more transparent the application in Dunkerque of the regulations and specifications concerning industrial installations. The SEI is above all a tool for consultation and consensus.

Additional information

Contact : Mr. NAVE and Mr LESORT
Agence d'Urbanisme et de Développement de la Région Flandre-Dunkerque
38, quai Hollandais
59140 Dunkerque

Telephone : 33 03 28 58 06 30
Fax : 33 03 28 59 04 27 E-mail : Doc.AGUR@netinfo.fr

Fact sheet prepared from the following works :
- Villes industrielles et développement durable [Industrial cities and sustainable development], Economie et Humanisme, Dossier No 342, October 1997. Article p.21-28: Dunkerque : contrat pour l'environnement, contrat social [Dunkerque, contract for the environment, social contract]
- Les villes françaises pour le développement durable [French cities for sustainable development]. United Nations Conference on human settlement. Habitat II. Cities Summit, Istanbul, 3-14 June 1996. Book published by the Ministry for the Environment in June 1996. p. 50-53.

Acknowledgements

The text for this project summary was developed by l'association 4D (Dossiers et débats pour le développement durable), Paris - E-mail:association4d@globenet.org, 1999.