The pristine Gérardmer Lake, in the Vosges Mountains of eastern France, hides a dismal legacy of 20th century conflict — dozens of tonnes of unused ordnance accumulated during two world wars.
Situated 660 metres (2,170 ft) above sea level, the lake is a popular bathing spot in summer and is also sometimes used for drinking water for the picturesque local town.
The Odysseus 3.1 environmental group said samples taken from the lake contained traces of TNT explosives as well as high levels of metals such as iron, titanium and lead, prompting Gerardmer Mayor Stacey Speisman-Mouzas to question the safety of the water.
The group said it found cannonballs in the mud at the bottom of the lake. Lionel Réard, founder of Odysseus 3.1, said in a documentary aired by France 5 channel in May that some of the shells had “exploded, releasing the explosives they contained.”
Samples sent to a German laboratory found levels of TNT “the highest ever measured by that team”, with concentrations of the metal well above legal limits.
‘Throw it all in the lake’
The mayor has said the government should pay for a more detailed study of the dangers posed by the munitions initially dumped at Gérardmer by the French army. As the theater of numerous conflicts over the past century and more, France is particularly plagued by unexploded ordnance.
Most of the bombs date from the world wars, but shells from the Franco-Prussian War of the 1870s are still found, said Charlotte Nihart of Robin des Bois (Robin Hood), an organisation that charts unexploded bombs in France.
Every year around 10 deaths occur across the country due to unexploded bombs.
During the war, retreating armies would dump war material into lakes to prevent it from reaching enemy forces, Nihart said.
Disposal operations began at Gérardmer after a man was burned by phosphorus shale in 1977. They continued until 1994, with explosives being removed up to 10 metres below the lake surface.
“They destroyed 120 tons of ammunition, made up of about 100,000 pieces of different types dating from 1914-18 and 1939-45,” said Pierre Imbert, the mayor’s assistant and a former local fire chief and diver.
Disposal teams brought each explosive to the surface, where they could remove the detonators.
“Then they went to the end of the lake and blew it up,” Imbert recalled.
The photographs he has kept from disposal campaigns include “handmade grenades from World War I, more recent items from World War II, and even a small axe”.
The regional authority told Robin des Bois that officials have banned ordnance disposal because of the difficulty of working off the shore and beneath the mud at the bottom of the lake.
The field is estimated to contain about 70 tonnes of oil beneath the Gérardmer bed.
“There is no way to assess the amount of weapons still buried in the mud up to 30 metres below the surface,” Imbert said.
‘Contaminate everything’
(Some weapons have been circulating in the lake’s currents since 1945.
Aurélie Mathieu, head of the AKM eco-tourism association for the Vosges region, said the state must “protect everything around the lakeshore from contamination.”
But the regional authority is refusing to act based solely on the Odysseus 3.1 analysis.
“Neither the ARS (regional health agency) nor the Ances (National Health and Safety Agency) were involved in the investigation, and we have no details of the methods used to collect and analyse the samples,” he told AFP.
It said the samples were taken by state agencies in February and analysed by “several French and German laboratories”.
“Initial results confirmed the findings of previous expeditions – no worrying levels of lead were detected in the lake water,” the regional authority said.
It says “no health risks have been identified” from drinking or swimming in the water.
A company has placed a bid to map the ordnance still lying at the bottom of the lake.
Mayor Spiesman-Mozas said it would cost “around 300,000 euros ($334,000).”
He is interested in the offer provided the national government pays.
“It’s the French army that has put all these weapons here,” he argued.
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