Seaweed invasion plagues France's pristine Brittany
Hillion, France (AFP) Sept 28, 2009 – Hillion is a picture-postcard Breton town with grey stone houses, a pretty granite church and long sandy beaches. But the seaside idyll has been ruined by mounds of rotting seaweed that have settled across swathes of France’s northwestern coast, giving off a potentially deadly gas. “It’s a never-ending problem. When it’s hot the smell is absolutely disgusting,” said Philippe, a resident in his sixties. “Our children breathe in the smell every day. We want to know if it’s dangerous for them. Will one of us get cancer one day?,” said Nathalie Baussan, who lives near a waste plant used to store algae scraped from local beaches. … many residents accuse the government of acting too slowly, with some 300 lawsuits already filed against the top state official in the Cotes d’Armor region, several accusing him of deliberately endangering lives. … In this agricultural region, experts argue that the prime cause of algae blooms is pollution from animal farms, in particular those that use intensive methods to raise pigs and poultry. Waste material — essentially faeces and urine — from these farms are spread onto fields in huge quantities. From there, it is washed by the rain into streams and rivers and ultimately the sea where it becomes an excellent nitrate-rich fertiliser for green algae. Resident groups have long been pressuring authorities to crack down on polluting farmers. “They just need to apply the law. The law is perfect, but it is not applied,” Denis Baulier of a group called “Urgence Marees Vertes’ (SOS Green Tides) told AFP. Baulier helped organise a protest Sunday on a beach in Hillion — cleared of algae for the occasion — where 1,000 locals and environmental activists turned out to demand swift state action. …
