The prefecture orders Perrier to « withdraw » within two months its microfiltration system – Liberation
Days that the city of Vergèze (Gard) holds its breath. For more than a century, the famous brand of mineral water Perrier has drawn its source there, supporting in passing the economy of the territory by using more than 1,000 people on its site today. This Wednesday, May 7, the Gard prefecture announced that it would make a decision before August 7 on the operating authorization by the industrial industrialist under The name of natural mineral water. The label has been making the company’s reputation since its inception. In the meantime, she orders him for « withdraw » within two months its controversial microfiltration system.
For several months, Nestlé Waters, owner of Perrier, a house with international notoriety founded in 1903, has been the subject of a controversy concerning its use, in the past, water disinfection treatments. Non -dangerous for consumption, these processes are prohibited for mineral waters, the purity of which must be guaranteed to emergence and which must not undergo treatment which modifies their microbial flora.
Before the Gard prefecture is pronounced, hydrogeologists had made a « Advanced opinion » on the renewal of the operating authorization of the source under the name of natural mineral water. New contamination had also been detected in bottles produced at the Vergèze factory.
« I do not believe a second that the state can abandon neither the Perrier source, nor natural mineral water, nor the glassware (Located next to it and whose owner, the American Owens-Illinois, announced the cessation of activities, editor’s note)»»declared the mayor of Vergèze at the end of April, Pascale Fortunat-deschamps. “Perrier is our story. We have all known people from our family, for generations, who have been working in Perrier. It is these people who have made the richness of what Perrier is today ”she had added.
With the president of the departmental council, Françoise Laurent-Perrigot, Pascale Fortunat-deschamps had arrested the prefect in mid-April, Jérôme Bonet, saying that her decision « Will take into account the imperative to reconcile the health security requirements with the need to preserve employment ».
