80 years on, French lake still polluted by World War II bombs

NEWS WIRES

24 September 2024 at 10:47 am·2-min read

A French environmental group has found artillery shells dating back to World Wars I and II and even the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 in a lake in eastern France. Water samples from Gerardmer in the Vosges mountains show high levels of TNT explosive as well as metals like iron, titanium and lead. A major theatre of conflicts over the past century and a half, France is particularly afflicted by unexploded ordnance, which results in 10 deaths nationwide a year.

The apparently pristine Gerardmer lake in the Vosges mountains of eastern France conceals a bleak legacy of 20th-century conflict -- dozens of tonnes of unexploded ordnance from the two world wars.

The lake 660 metres (2,170 feet) above sea level is a popular summer bathing spot and is sometimes also tapped for drinking water for the picturesque local town.

Gerardmer's mayor Stessy Speissmann-Mozas started asking questions about the water safety after the Odysseus 3.1 environmental group said samples taken from the lake showed high levels of TNT explosive, as well as metals like iron, titanium and lead.

The group said it found artillery shells in the mud at the bottom of the lake. Some were "gutted, allowing the explosive they contained to escape", Odysseus 3.1's founder Lionel Rard said in a documentary broadcast by the France 5 channel in May.

Samples sent to a German lab showed TNT levels among "the highest ever measured by that team", as well as metal concentrations above legal limits.

'Stick all this in the lake'

Unexploded ordnance is involved in around 10 deaths nationwide every year.

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'Stick all this in the lake'

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