In December 2020, the prefect Josiane Chevalier had issued two decrees ordering the definitive cessation of the work carried out by the company Fonroche Géothermie aimed at installing a geothermal power plant in Vendenheim, north of Strasbourg. This decision followed a series of induced earthquakes (caused by human activity), recorded in a few weeks in the perimeter of the geothermal power plant, and with a magnitude of up to 3.5.
The company contested these decrees. She won her case: according to the administrative court, the Fonroche company “had taken the necessary measures as soon as the earthquake of December 4, 2020” (of magnitude 3.5) occurred, by suspending its operations. And the prefect “did not respect the applicable procedure” by ordering the definitive cessation of work.
The prefecture announced that it was studying “the possibility of appealing”. If the final nature of the work stoppage is canceled, they nevertheless remain suspended to allow analyzes to be carried out by a committee of experts, which is trying to shed light on the exact cause of the earthquakes that have occurred since 2019.
Expert report delayed
Asked, the Fonroche company told AFP that its priority remained the processing of the 3,900 claims for compensation for damage caused by the earthquakes. “The second priority is for the scientific work of understanding seismic events to be completed”, declared its director Jean-Philippe Soulé.
The report of the committee of experts, commissioned by the prefecture and initially announced for the month of March, has “fallen behind schedule”. Its publication date has not been specified.
Fonroche assures that the earthquakes felt in 2020 are only the consequence of the tests it had been mandated to do to determine the causes of a first earthquake recorded in November 2019, of magnitude 3.9 and whose origin remains uncertain.
According to the company, the 2019 earthquake was of natural origin and tests to determine its causes have caused the following.
