I run away, the hill of poisons remains

The snake of dust that is knotted around Monte Onixeddu, on the borders of the coal and barite lands, between Carbonia and Gonnesa, has stopped stirring. The torment of trucks loaded with poisons that for three years had been violating those valleys has inexorably stopped. The queue in front of the gates of the Riverso, hell's dump, has disappeared. At the window, for the last few days, some workers, of those entrusted to the safety of the poisoned hill. For the rest, the escape from that enclave of hazardous waste bristling with the ashes of the Barega mine is marked. Real escape, including the blitz a few days ago that closed the Carbonia, Serra Scirieddus and Viale Armando Diaz offices in Cagliari. The security reports in the Lombard Chamber of Commerce mark a new entry: Riverso SpA which transits from Cagliari to the financial city par excellence. An operation that we reproduce in the documents we are in possession of, as evidence of detailed planning. The registered office is changed, not only to avoid paying taxes in Sardinia, but, according to the most experts, also to seek a legal forum away from possible social tensions and the environmental defeat of Serra Scirieddus. Everything as we wanted to prove: in silence and without warning. The technique has long been consolidated. The instructions had long been given to technicians and workers: no breath, we are doing everything possible to save your job. Months and months of agony and, then, yesterday the final blow: everyone at home, without exception, including the guardians. Forty-six workers betrayed by their own mission: to fill those banks with poisons as quickly as possible. The plan, seen in the sequence of times, methods and quantities of waste, seems to have been designed in the smallest detail. It is no different to explain why that landfill was filled beyond belief in just two years with an endless caravan of waste that arrived in Sardinia, sent from every polluted hole in Italy, with the sole aim of making cash as if there was a tomorrow. And, in fact, there was no tomorrow.

There could not have been, and they knew it, without fear of denial, before all the owners of that hell of poisons. They knew that no one would ever grant a surety policy to a company at risk of revocation, given that the bankruptcy of the parent company, Daneco, had been declared without further delay in recent months. The latent risk looms like a cleaver knowing that the landfill, that of the Riverso, had been the subject of a tightrope sale, given the timing of the arrangement and then the bankruptcy. Transfer occurred between subjects, however, directly linked to the bankrupt company. Nobody could trust to grant an insurance policy for the next thirty years, many of which the law provides, to protect the post landfill both in terms of monitoring and remediation and safety of the site. Those policies, even the phony ones , ceased to exist last June. The Bulgarian and Romanian companies that had issued non-existent guarantees have disappeared, wrapped in the mysterious hood that swirls in the Eastern countries. On balance, a policy of 16 million was needed, which no one has ever thought of giving. Too many risks and infinite problems. Francesco Colucci, 99% owner of the landfill, however, has always sailed in the world of waste and knows every pitfall. The appointment with the expiry of the surety came with a gigantic “collection” of extra-regional hazardous waste, mainly coming from northern and central Italy.

A mountain of poisons that in the last three years has allowed him to put a mountain of money in the safe. It went from 4,866 tons in 2017 to 61,939 tons in 2018, 81,436 tons in 2019 and 37,985 in the first 5 months of 2020. In 2017 Colucci earned from that landfill “just” 3 million and 720 thousand euros. Until the agreement with the poison lords of Northern and Central Italy. Since 2018 the accounts have conquered Everest, the mint of the money produced by the waste has been enchanted: the revenues mark 10 million and 332 thousand euros. Increase from unprecedented financial climb: more 177.74% compared to the previous year. The Serra Scirieddus landfill becomes a crazy slot machine: in 2019 a further leap forward in revenues that break through the 13 million euro wall, a more 26.79% compared to 2018 and more 204% compared to 2017.

Now that it is established that no one will risk a surety policy on that basin of poisons, the most hidden arcana of the Riverso's flight towards Milan are revealed. An inexplicable choice that leaves the most hidden abandonment strategies open. Certainly the steps put in place leave you baffled: the last one yesterday morning. In the name and on behalf of Riverso, the letter signed by the plant manager leaves for the landfill custodians, the last remaining in operation. The content is exhaustive and clear as few: from tomorrow everyone at home, in layoffs, your place will be taken by the armed vigilantes of Ol Securpol srl., A security company with its headquarters at 300 kilometers from Serra Scirieddus. Armed men on the road: they will go from protecting the villas of the Costa Smeralda to guarding the poisons of Barega. With a small detail that INPS cannot ignore: the custodians of the Riverso will end up in layoffs, paid by the State, while the company, on the other hand, will replace them with a private security company. At stake is the expulsion of employees and the methods: in the letter we publish, sent yesterday to the workers, it is foreseen that the expert custodians of the Riverso must work alongside the security guards for 7 days. Who knows if the Arpas will decide to directly verify the monitoring of leachate, of the quantities of poisoned water that is extracted from that infinite heap of poisons.

Certainly those employees who always did it will no longer do it. The question of environmental safety, of the risks and dangers of an environmental catastrophe, is the hottest game of this story. Riverso closes everything because it no longer has an insurance policy, one of at least 16 million euros would be needed, and at the same time no one is concerned with the future of this landfill, a real ecological bomb, the most impressive in Sardinia. Bulgarian and Romanian policies cannot be collected because, as revealed by the Sardinian Union investigation, they are bankrupt or declared interdicted. And, therefore, that disaster will remain with the Region which will end up paying, with Sardinian money, the safety of that landfill and its monitoring for the next thirty years, as required by law. Last detail of this story: on 4 October next, at 4.00 pm, in the administrative office, at number three of viale Armando Diaz in Cagliari, the ordinary shareholders' meeting is called. The agenda will not deal with the workers, much less with the safety of the landfill. The first point of the agenda is explicit: Proposal to distribute available reserves up to the amount of one million euros. As if to say the landfill and the workers can wait, for now we share the nest egg. The public budgets, those paid by the Sardinians, will have to deal with the ecological bomb in Serra Scirieddus.