The French Suez Group has been ordered to compensate residents of the Oise region following the contamination of their drinking water.
On Thursday 12 June, the Beauvais Criminal Court acquitted the Suez Group due to the absence of an identified representative, but ordered it to compensate residents. The company was prosecuted for contaminating the water distributed in Breuil-le-Sec near Clermont in the Oise region in 2019.
The contamination caused an outbreak of gastroenteritis, with more than 260 cases.
Although acquitted in the criminal proceedings, Suez was found liable in the civil action and ordered to pay €500 in damages to a dozen victims, each of whom had brought civil proceedings.
An error by a Suez employee caused the pollution.
The wastewater spilled into the municipality’s drinking water network due to an error made by a Suez employee. Entire families suffered vomiting and diarrhoea, and children had to be hospitalised. Samples taken by the ARS revealed bacteria in the drinking water.
Suez was prosecuted for endangerment due to a breach of regulatory obligations.
During the hearing on 24 April, the public prosecutor requested a fine of €50,000, citing ‘a series of faults on the part of the Suez group’ and ‘shortcomings’ in terms of regulations and information provided to the public and the community.
Laurent Isoré, who has been the director of the Suez Oise Nord Ile-de-France agency since 2022, stated that the group had initially suspected work on the public highway before realising that a backflow preventer at the station had not been put back in place after an employee had worked on the network.
However, since the 2015 ministerial decree came into effect, backflow preventers have had to be automatic rather than manual. This was still the case at the Breuil-le-Sec wastewater treatment plant at the time.
