Alexis JAOUL

Thesis :

An Environmental History of the Orbiel Valley
 

Statut :

Certified History and Geography Teacher at Lycée Sabatier in Carcassonne, and at the ESPE of Montpellier (primary education), Carcassonne site; enrolled as a PhD candidate in October 2020

Encadrement :

Jean‑Michel Minovez, Full Professor, University Jean Jaurès, and Laure Teulières, Lecturer, University Jean Jaurès

Abstract :

Over 125 years (1873–2004), mining operations around Salsigne (Aude), together with smelting and later cyanidation used to extract precious metals — gold, silver and copper — as well as to produce arsenic, heavily polluted the site and its surroundings.
These numerous industrial discharges, fumes and effluents triggered mobilisations against the pollution generated by mining and gold extraction. Despite these mobilisations, and with the support of the prefectural administration, industrial operators were able to continue gold extraction — and the associated pollution.
Today, two artificial hills “store” the mining waste and continue to affect local residents and the environments of the Orbiel valley, a tributary of the Aude.This waste is regularly washed and leached during Cévenol rainfall events, which are frequent in the region, causing pollutants to run off and spread across flooded areas. The aim of the thesis is to write the history of the overflows and impacts of the extractive industry in the Orbiel valley and the risks associated with this pollution. It seeks to describe how these recurrent or occasional discharges were tolerated, or even authorised, by administrative authorities at both prefectural and national levels. It also analyses how the mobilisations that followed these pollution events were contained and neutralised by industrial operators and the prefectural administration.