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Prestige: Onshore response in France

The Prestige spill affected two Defence Areas (zones de défense), first of all the south-western defence area covering the western Pyrenees, the Landes, Gironde and Charente-maritime and subsequently the western defence area covering Vendée, Loire-Atlantique, Morbihan, Finistère, Côtes-d’Armor, Ile-et-Vilaine and la Manche.

As stated in the Polmar Plan in cases such as the Prestige, the Prefects of the defence areas were in charge of "co-ordinating the entire response" including operational follow-up ashore, at sea and in the air, ensuring seamless response and resource availability. In actual fact they were lead to take on more overarching responsibilities including financial management of the Polmar Funds.

Initially, resources were requisitioned locally and validated by the prefects of the defence areas. But thereafter and as of the month of April, framework contracts were signed with entrepreneurs at the national level to secure clean-up, evacuation and processing services for the polluted materials collected by the response teams. The strategy that was adopted at defence area level to provide a seamless response was not without effect on administrative and financial procedures required to conduct the repines.

See also

• South-western defence area
• Western defence area
• Use of beach cleaners in Aquitaine
• Cleaning hard substrates in the western Pyrenees and Gironde