On Tuesday 18 May, the Secretary of State for ecology, Chantal Jouanno, launched the round table on industrial risks, chaired by former Ademe director Jacques Vernier. During 4 meetings, stakeholders will adopt a 5-way governance process in an attempt to “identify possible measures for the management and reduction of risks”.
To do this, they plan to inform the public, control high-risk industries, establish technological risk prevention plans (PPRT) or soil contamination prevention. The objective is to achieve operational advances which will be reflected in the Grenelle II Bill .
The technological risk prevention plans stipulated in the Bachelot Bill remain exceptional in France. To date, ten of these plans have been implemented even though the country has more than 400 classified sites.

According to France nature environment (FNE) “a consensus is being reached between the participants with regard to the initial assessment as well as possible improvements: protecting workers’ health and the status of whistle-blower, a necessity recognised by NGOs and trade unions alike; reinforcing public information and involvement in the decision-making process; increasing the resources dedicated to the monitoring of high-risk sites”.

See the letter of invitation of the secretary of state and the round table composition

Following the final meeting of 3 July 2009 of the round table on industrial risks launched in the spring by Secretary of State Chantal Jouanno, a summary study presenting the consensus of all stakeholders as part of a “5-way governance process” is now available.
The legislative proposals resulting from these propositions will be integrated by way of amendments as part of the examination of the Grenelle 2 Bill in September 2009.

The following 3 subjects which were not tackled by the round table should be examined by the High Council for classified installations (CSIC) in September:

• link between staff and industrial risks
• contaminated soil 
• post-accident waste management
  

As requested and obtained by France Nature Environment , the Grenelle conference on industrial risks was launched in May 2009. The objective for FNE is to achieve concrete and operational progress and promote the implementation of a Grenelle-type governance process.
FNE also carried out, with the support of the Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development, a quantitative assessment of the implementation and operation of CLIS (Local Information and Surveillance Committees).
CLIS, consultative bodies designed to inform the population of the effects of waste treatment facilities on the environment and health, were created in 1990.

Amendments to the Grenelle 2 Bill

Following the round table, exchanges made it possible for the participants to issue 33 consensual recommendations with a view to improving the proceedings on this theme.
Some of these propositions concern the legislative domain while others cover the regulatory field or relate to technical guides or the development of best practices.

• Art 81 bis: stipulates that the operators of certain installations with a declaration obligation must provide classified installation inspectors with the results of the periodic controls carried out in their installations,
• Art 81 ter: harmonise and improve the coherence of deadlines regarding proceedings against classified installations,
• Art 81 quater: set up an administrative police, similar to that for classified installations, for the infrastructure hubs of hazardous materials transport (railway junctions, ports etc.),
• Art 96: merge the different consultative bodies within the same industrial site (clic and clis).
  

Modernisation plan for the control of the risks associated with the ageing of industrial installations

The objective of the plan is to raise collective awareness, on the scale of each company, of the importance of increasing the maintenance and surveillance of this type of equipment.

The plan includes 38 measures, divided into six major themes:

• cross-sectional theme: modernisation of safety management systems for the improved consideration of the ageing issue,
• civil engineering (4 actions),
• storage tanks (14 actions),
• transport pipes (8 actions),
• capacity and piping systems on industrial sites (7 actions),
• safety instrumentation (4 actions).
  

The plan includes regulatory evolutions, the overhaul or production of technical guides by industrial companies, “zero states” and additional investigations of the installations deemed most critical, reinforced surveillance, improvement in safety management systems as well as specific investments.