Paris river port “Green Dock” project under fire from environmentalists, residents

By Elitsa Gadeva

GENNEVILLIERS, France, Oct 17 (Sciences Po) – According to the promoters, a huge new dock at the Gennevillers river port on the Seine will decarbonize transport by moving it from trucks to ships, but activists say that is just greenwash to push through a 150 million euro project that will harm wildlife and hit local residents.

HAROPA Port, the public institution managing the Le Havre, Rouen and Paris river ports on the Seine, says that the 600-metre-long and four-story-high “Green Dock” project, financed by air conditioner producer Goodman Manufacturing, will increase river freight and reduce road traffic.

Green organisations say that the project, which will measure roughly the size of two football stadiums, will be built 50 metres away from the “Natura 2000” ornithological reserve sheltering wild animals such as hedgehogs, lizards, mi

ce and many birds, including several rare and threatened bird species, including the European Kingfisher and the Great Cormorant.

“This seems to us to be absolutely the wrong way to go about sustainable logistics,” said Luc Blanchard, co-president of the green association France Nature Environment (FNE).

Blanchard said several of the birds are protected by the Birds Directive of the European Union, which notes that they must not be disturbed and respect their tranquillity. Some of them also live in the old warehouse that will be demolis

hed before the construction of the Green Dock.

“We have lodged an appeal against the demolition,” said Blanchard, pointing at the abandoned warehouse, “They don’t take the protected species into account.”

If the new warehouse is built, it will cast a shadow on the natural zone during winter, drastically reducing sunlight. The artificial lights of the construction will also light up the zone, endangering biodiversity.

Locals are also up in arms against the plan.

“The term greenwashing has never been more appropriate for a project,” said Antoine Gaudin, president of the association “Protection of the Banks of the Seine”.

For him, the Green Dock would only mean more pollution and noise nuisance for locals.

Both the FNE and the “Protection of the Banks of the Seine” said they remain “realistic” and say that their goal is not to prevent any construction, but to reduce its size at least by half.

For now, only permission for the demolition of the old warehouse has been signed, while the beginning of the construction of the Green Dock has been delayed.

Gaudin warns that if this second stage is reached without any changes to the size of the construction, they will file a complaint to the European Parliament invoking the EU’s birds directive.

Patrice Leclerc, the mayor of Gennevilliers, assured that the City Hall is monitoring the construction.

“Of course, the law will be applied. If there is a real risk for the protected zone, we will not continue with the project,” he told BFMTV.

Gaudin blames the mayor of Gennevilliers for having a foot in both camps.

“He turns off the lights in Genevilliers during the night to save electricity, but he is for this big Luna Park warehouse that will be lit up day and night,” he said.

“He needs to decide whether he is actually eco or he’s playing for business interests.”

Neighbouring communes are also uniting against the construction of the Green Dock. Épinay-sur-Seine, Saint-Ouen and L'Île-Saint-Denis are concerned that the huge warehouse will block the river view of their residents and bring even more heavy traffic to the region.

“Thirty percent of the traffic will be done by river, I understand. But what about the other 70 percent?! That will be all trucks coming to our region. And all of this will be on top of all the transport we already have,” says Eugénie Ponthier, Urban ecology deputy mayor of Epinay-sur-Seine.

She is also scared that the new “Great Wall of China” – as opponents refer to the project – in Gennevilliers will impact the landscape from her town, as people won’t have the view of the River Seine anymore, but an enormous warehouse instead.

Defending the Green Dock in a press release, Goodman Manufacturing highlighted the growing importance of river transport as a carbon-free alternative to classic road logistics.

Maritime shipping, including river freight, emits around 20 times fewer greenhouse gases (GHG) than heavy goods vehicles like trucks and lorries and 140 times less GHG than air cargo, according to a study commissioned by the European Environment Agency.

The greener waterway alternative is gaining popularity with the growth of e-commerce, which puts even more pressure on the distribution of goods to urban areas.

French retailer Franprix, for example, decided to supply its Paris stores with goods through the port of Bourdonnais in central Paris. Now, the French company saves 80,000 litres of fuel annually and removes hundreds of trucks off the streets of Paris.

“We aren’t against the development of the port, but such a project is simply not it,” said Deputy Mayor Ponthier.

“After all, how would a wild hedgehog cross over a 600-metre wall?”